


Wanting to Know / Ever and Always

by daenabenjen42



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types
Genre: Angst, Emotional Baggage, Exar Kun and Yavin4, F/M, Feline Character, Gen, Humor, Hurt/Comfort, Journey to Wellness, Obsessed With Flowers, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Psychic Medium, Romance, Snarky Medic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-08
Updated: 2016-07-08
Packaged: 2018-07-22 07:12:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 29
Words: 106,586
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7425115
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/daenabenjen42/pseuds/daenabenjen42
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>They had wanted to know, to follow a certain path...</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Timeline: Except for the first scene which takes place during Heir to the Empire, post-TLC  
> Disclaimer: Star Wars belongeth to other people. Quite happily playing in the sandbox.  
> A/N: This is the back story for Obsessed With Flowers, which I'll post here eventually. Not sure how to qualify this story in the tags, exactly, but it was written to the board rules at TheForce.Net Jedi Council Forums of being a PG to PG-13 rated story.

She sighed, hating the fact that she was on guard duty and had no one to talk to... well, she thought as she glanced at the astromech droid standing nearby, no one that she could understand if they talked back, that is.

"Hey you," she stage-whispered to the droid. The droid rotated it's canopy so that it was "looking" at her. "Yes, you. Sense anything out there?"

The droid signaled in the negative and it rotated away from her again. Ignoring her.

Mara glanced to where her charge was sleeping and sighed in disgust. She hated him. Hated that he'd run, hated that she'd had to go after him. Hated that they had to depend on each other to get out of this situation that they'd landed themselves in the middle of.

The droid's canopy rotated around to her again, and signaled what sounded like a question.

She frowned at it. "Huh?" It signaled again and she was even more confused, sure that it couldn't be asking how she was. "I don't understand."

The droid's "head" rotated to it's master, and then back to her and signaled again, this time sounding even more concerned.

"If you're asking how I am," Mara said, bewildered as could be. "I'm fine. Just..." She shook her head, suddenly aware that she was about to spill her guts to a piece of machinery. The droid trilled at her in question again and she looked at him. After a moment, she smiled. "Thanks, little guy." She stood up, walked over to it, and patted it on the head. "Needed that."

They stood keeping watch together for the rest of the night.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

They had wanted to know.

After everything that had happened in so short a time, now that she finally had time to think, that thought kept coming back to her.

They had wanted to know. It was that simple.

To know where the place was. To do something right with that knowledge, legal or not.

It hadn't mattered if it was legal to break her out and get past the guard, they just did what was needed. To right a wrong, no matter what.

As Mara stood on the roof looking out over Imperial City, she couldn't help but feel good that she'd been a part of it. That she'd helped them to put it right.

And as his arms slid around her in a tight embrace, she smiled. "We did good."

"Yes," he answered. "We did."

They stood there for a moment before Mara turned and looked up at him. "This thing between us?"

"What about it?"

"It feels… right and wrong at the same time." She shrugged. "I don't know."

Luke took that in for a moment, then nodded. "You're right. It does feel like it shouldn't be. Wrong."

"But right," Mara pressed, her tone insistant.

Luke pulled her closer. "Definitely right."

"I don't want to tell anybody yet," Mara told him suddenly. "Let's keep it between us… see where it goes."

"Sounds good."

Mara let herself be pulled deeper into his arms, smiling.

~*~*~*~*~

They had been standing on the roof for a little while looking out over Imperial City, when Mara reluctantly pulled herself out of his arms. "We really should go to that meeting now, you know."

Luke nodded. "I know."

"But you'd rather stay here." She smiled vexingly at him.

"So would you, Mara."

Mara scoffed. "And miss all the fun of trade agreements? Never."

"Well, if we must…"

"…and we really must," Mara said indulgently.

Luke chuckled. "Right… then we must."

As they walked toward the door to the roof stairs, Mara glanced back at him. "Meet up later?"

Luke nodded. "Sounds good."

Mara smiled once more, then adopted a serious expression. "All right. Let's do this."

Luke just shook his head in amusement as he followed her through the door and down the stairs.

~*~*~*~*~

Talon Karrde wasn't surprised to see Skywalker come into the meeting a minute behind Mara and lean against the wall. He'd noticed that they'd been a little closer after Wayland, but hadn't thought to ask why. Glancing at Mara, he noticed that she glanced toward the occupied wall every so often when someone else was speaking. Amused, Talon shook his head and leaned over to her. "Something on your mind?"

Mara turned and blinked at him. "No, why?"

"You seem a bit distracted."

Mara shook her head and shrugged nonchalantly. "It's nothing."

He didn't believe her, but let the subject rest. For now.

~*~*~*~*~

Mara sighed contentedly in his arms. "We're not going to be able to keep this quiet."

"Sure we are," Luke murmured as they looked out the window at the sunset.

"Talon already suspects something. I could see it in the way he glanced at us."

"Then he'll just have to wonder, won't he?"

Mara tilted her head back to look at him. "You're not going to let me be pessimistic, are you?"

"Nope."

"Why not?"

"No need for it. If people want to wonder, then they get to wonder for a long while."

"So says the most famous Jedi in the galaxy."

"Ha-ha."

They were quiet for a few more minutes until Mara pushed out of his arms. "Go on. Your sister was expecting you for dinner, wasn't she?"

Luke nodded. "She is." He pulled her in close again. "But I'd rather say and have dinner with you."

"Mmm... farmboy?"

"Yes?"

"You really better go."

He kissed her once, and then he left. Mara watched him go, a soft smile on her lips.

~*~*~*~*~

Mara sighed as she sat at her desk in her cabin on the Wild Karrde and went over reports. She missed him already, and it was only the first week of the run.

She put the datapad down and stared at the blank wall. She could see his eyes, blue and clear, and honest... gazing back at her in the darkness when they'd said goodbye on Coruscant.

_"I'll be back every chance I get," she promised._

_"I know you will." He took her in his arms and they stood there, looking out over the city in the darkness. "Just be careful out there."_

_"I'll be with Karrde, Luke."_

_"And you'll take all the burdens on yourself, Mara."_

_She opened her mouth, about to say something, then stopped herself. Instead, she leaned into him. "I can't deny that."_

_"And?"_

_"I better not hear that you nearly got yourself killed again, or I'll kill you myself."_

_They were silent for a moment as Mara let those words sink in, before Luke snorted. "I'll do my best not to get myself killed, or nearly killed."_

_"Good."_

_Luke breathed in the smell of her hair and sighed. "I'll be there."_

_"Hmm?"_

_"With you. And you'll be with me..."_

Mara startled at the sound of her comm going off. Blinking, she reached for it and thumbed it on. "Jade here."

"We're coming out of hyperspace, Mara," Karrde's voice replied.

"I'll be right there. Sorry, lost track of time."

"Oh, and Mara?"

"Yes?"

"There was a message earmarked for you a while ago. You should be able to access it from your terminal."

"Thanks."

Curious, Mara turned to her terminal and checked it. Sure enough, there was.

The massage said, quite simply: _I'm already there. Miss you._

Mara stared at it for a minute, then smiled. "Love you too, Farmboy. Love you too."


	2. Chapter 2

"You seem distracted today," Talon said quietly to her when they were doing the inventory for the latest supply pickup.

Mara glanced at him. "It's nothing."

"Sure doesn't seem like it." Talon raised an eyebrow at her before turning to finish the crate he was on.

Mara watched as he finished and closed the lid of the crate. Then she looked down at her data pad again. "It's… well… I hate being on the sidelines. Out of the loop."

"We're not out of the loop, Mara." Talon glanced at her gently before checking the next crate. "Because we are out here, supplies are going where they're needed."

"True." Mara keyed some information into the datapadd, and then stopped and frowned. "Ow." Something sharp hit her through the force, and then it faded to a whisper.

Talon turned away from the crate at her vocalization, concerned. "Mara?" To him, she appeared somewhat pale and off balance.

She took a deep breath and shook her head. "It'll keep. Let's finish this."

"What was it?" At her glare, he turned back to the crate again. "Right."

Mara sighed as she continued to help with the inventory. Whatever that sensation had been, it could wait a while.

Later, when Mara was in her quarters alone, she found a private message waiting for her: "Don't worry, Mara. I'll be fine for the time being. Love you."

She was going to give him an earful when she found out what that meant.

~*~*~*~*~*~

Mara sat in her quarters on the Wild Karrde and relaxed into the Force like Luke had taught her to do. That message, and the painful sensations that bore reminders of her time as a dark servant made her uneasy.

Not worry? Who was he kidding?

She took a deep, cleansing breath reaching out, searching for him.

It felt like an eternity, because usually he was the one who initiated the contact, but she found him. It was… dark where he was.

* Luke? *

The answer she got back was confusing, almost as if he was trying to get her to leave. As if he were backing away. That only made her more insistent.

* Answer me, Farmboy. *

His presence finally, almost reluctantly, turned "toward" her, and he seemed… different, somehow. It reminded her of something, but she couldn't put her finger on what, precisely, it was that was so striking.

She frowned. * Luke? *

He seemed to shake his head, but didn't speak. Just stood there for a long, long moment looking at her as if from a great, murky, dark distance.

And then he seemed to vanish.

Mara opened her eyes to stare at the walls of her quarters. What was going on? Why did he vanish like that?

Standing up, she moved to get dressed, and then left her quarters. She needed answers, and there was only one way to get some: call his sister.

~*~*~*~*~*~

Leia Organa-Solo was still somewhat confused over her brother's behavior before he had let the Force Storm take him… wherever it was that he went. He'd been… almost reckless. Distracted. And he hadn't seemed like himself.

Presently, a chime startled her and she blinked. There was a comm. coming in over the holonet.

Leia pressed the answer button and waited for the image to resolve. "Mara?"

The woman on the screen appeared upset. Angry, even. "Your brother is in so much trouble, Organa-Solo."

Leia stared at her in surprise. "I'm sorry?"

"Just what I said. He sent this message, telling me that he'd be fine 'for now' and told me not to worry… What's he done?"

"Uh…" The tone in the other woman's voice confused her even if the question did not. "That's kind of a long story, Mara."

"Humor me."

She did.

A little later…

"Where are you and Solo right now? I'll join you as soon as I can tear myself away."

Leia suddenly felt a distracting sense of… something, and she had to shake her head. "I don't think that's wise, Mara."

Mara frowned. "Why not?"

"We'll find him, but… I have this sudden feeling that you should stay where you are. Why, I'm not sure."

"But-"

"No, Mara… Listen to me. Please? We will get him back, but you need to stay with Karrde."

Mara stared at her. What was going on here? First, he vanishes with a sloppy note and now Leia telling her to stay? "Why?"

"Because, when you said you were going to join us here, I… had a sudden sense of impending doom. Almost as if it's dangerous for you to be involved. I don't know why, but it is."

Mara nodded slowly. She didn't like it, but she could live with it. "All right, then. I'll stay here… Keep me posted?"

"Will do."

"And Leia?"

"Yes?"

"Find him."

Leia nodded. "We will."

And the comm. screen went blank. Leia sat there, wondering why her brother had sent Mara a note like that, for a long while.

~*~*~*~*~*~

Mara was at her terminal again, trying to figure out what he'd meant by that message by looking for clues in any messages that he'd sent her recently. The talk she'd had with Leia had been beneficial, because she hadn't known that much, either, other than how things appeared at the time.

What she'd been able to discern, aside from the fact that he loved her deeply, was that he'd developed a sense of melancholy. Why, she didn't understand yet, but... wait. Mara went back to the previous message and read it again. *A presence behind the chaos? That doesn't make sense.*

Mara sat back and thought about what that might mean. If there was something behind the discord, something, or someone, pulling the strings... that was noticeable in the force.

* I'll be fine for now... * Mara mulled his phrasing over in her mind, taking what she knew about her boyfriend and applying it to that phrasing.

He didn't know what he'd gone to face, that much was certain. But... and then something clicked in her mind. That sharp pain that had slammed into her from the Force earlier... it had felt really familiar. Too familiar. Only the missing smell of ozone had kept her from understanding what it was.

Force lightning.

* But who is out there that can... * a suspicion formed, and she shook her head. No. It was silly to even think it. Right? * He's dead. The dead don't electrocute people. *

Then a thought came, unbidden: clones. But that didn't make sense either. What would cloning have to do with it?

And then she got it. Cloned bodies. Or, rather... a cloned body. Hidden for a purpose. A back-up plan of sorts.

So... something behind the chaos, a sensation of force lighting, and the utterly silly idea that somewhere, somehow, there'd been a cloned... * Oh, Kriff. He's dead. He is so dead. If he lives through it, he's still going to be dead because I'll kill him myself. * Well... maybe NOT kill him... just make him wish he were dead.

 

Months later...

 

Vima-Da-Boda kept glancing at the man seated across from her at the table in the lounge of the Millennium Falcon. He seemed... withdrawn. And young. She could feel the power he held. Feel the… travails he'd been through of late.

It reminded her of a time… before. Among the powerful ones like herself. He had the same bearing, but... no. Not yet. Almost, but... she felt he had more to do before he got there.

First of the new, last of the old, but still a knight.

"Jedi?"

He looked at her and she saw the shadows of recent days in his eyes. "Yes?"

"Tread softly. Path not an easy one."

He stared at her for a moment before nodding slowly. "I know."

"Shadows deep, but light beat it back if you let it. Remember that."

"I will."

Vima smiled and they lapsed into a more comfortable silence.

~*~*~*~*~*~

Mara sighed as she walked back to the Jade's Fire. Four days, and still no closer to having a full cargo of supplies. The fact that there was a trader's summit going on had probably made it harder to obtain, but she doubted it. Trying to get cargo on Corellia was always hard, and the war hadn't made it any easier.

Glancing back the way she'd come toward the busy street, Mara sighed again. The war. First, the man she loved had to go off and be a hero, then he disappeared with nary a word, then his sister and her husband get him back and it turns out he was on Byss of all places.

She had really wanted to break all the bones in his body when he'd told her that...

_Walking down the boarding ramp of her ship into the busy hanger bay of a New Republic ship, Mara had to stop and glance around. Nope, aside from ships in varying states of repair, not much had changed._

_Feeling something familiar, Mara turned and saw Luke approaching her with an expression of apprehension on his face. She had to shake her head slightly, to curb the urge of wanting to run into his arms. They had to keep up appearances, after all, even if only just._

_"Mara," Luke said when he got close enough. "I'm so glad you came."_

_"Are you?"_

_Luke stopped and looked at her, almost taken aback by the coldness of those two words. "Are you mad?"_

_"You're the one who sent a message telling me not to worry, broke off contact without a word, and then got electricuted... and I'm supposed to be thrilled about it? Really, Farmboy."_

_Luke suddenly wanted to back away from her very slowly. "You're mad."_

_"Yes..." She looked at him sternly for a minute longer, analyzing what she saw. He appeared fine, but she couldn't shake the feeling that something was still wrong. "You did have a medic check you over, right?"_

_"No."_

_Mara's eyes narrowed and she grabbed him by the arm. "Well, then. That is the first thing we're doing."_

_"But I'm fine!" Luke protested as she led him out of the hanger bay._

_"Uh-huh... I'll believe it when I hear it from a professional."_

_Leia, holding an infant and walking through the corridors with Han, blinked in surprise when she was treated to the sight of Mara practically dragging Luke down the hall by the arm. "Uh..."_

_Mara smiled as they passed them. "Hi, Leia. Han. Talk to you two later, all right?"_

_Han stared after them, then looked down at Leia. "Think we want to know?"_

_"No."_

_"Good call."_

_"I told you I was fine," Luke told her as they left the medical suites. "There was no need for that."_

_"Sure there was."_

_"Oh really?"_

_"Yes."_

_"Like what, exactly?"_

_"Peace of mind. Mine, specifically." Mara folded her arms and looked at him seriously. "Well? Are you going to tell me what happened or what?"_

_"Bad things."_

_They looked at each other for a solid minute before they both broke into chuckles, the ridiculousness of the situation just too much to hold it in._

_Later, when Mara heard the story, she just sighed and shook her head in resignation. She'd missed the whole thing because he'd wanted her to not get involved. She could understand why, but... "I want you to promise me one thing, Luke."_

_"Oh?"_

_"That the next time you have an adventure, I get to go along."_

_"Promise."_

Presently, Mara noticed something small and black following her again. She stopped and waited for the animal that had been following her around for days whenever she'd left her ship to come closer.

It came closer, then sat on it's haunches, still a fair distance away, and Mara couldn't help but be intrigued.

Slowly, in order not to scare it away, Mara walked toward it with casual deliberance. It didn't move, just stared up at her with a calm expression of feline inquisitiveness.

They stared at each other for a moment before Mara bent down and bravely offered the feline her hand to smell.

The feline, tenatively at first, smelled Mara's hand, then nuzzled it with it's head. Mara smiled and acceded to the request for petting and scratched behind the felines ears.

The feline came closer and nuzzled Mara's knees, and Mara noticed the white patch on it's chest. It reminded her of how a star looked against the blackness of space... "Dark Star? Hmm... I like that. What do you think, little one?" The only response was for the feline to continue to nuzzle Mara's knees and lean into Mara's hands as she petted her. "Dark Star it is, then."

~*~*~*~*~

Mara sat down in the chair and looked across the desk at Talon Karrde. "I need a month of leave time."

"Oh?"

"Yes."

"For what, may I ask?"

Mara sighed, but didn't break his gaze. "Training."

"Really?" Talon raised an eyebrow at her. "What kind of training?"

Mara stared at him for a moment, trying to think of something better than 'my boyfriend is on a planet alone with a bunch of trainees, some of them women...' Finally, she settled on: "Skywalker invited me to Yavin."

Karrde said nothing as he looked at her calmly, letting the silence hang there between them... then he nodded. "All right... of course you can go, Mara."

Mara smiled at him. "Thank you."

"I assume you're taking Dark Star with you?"

"Of course I am. Why?"

"Just wondering... though Drum and Strang have taken quite a liking to her. You could leave her here if you wanted to." The silence stretched between them as Mara stared at him and Karrde looked calmly back at her... until Karrde rolled his eyes and Mara chuckled in response. "Have a good time at Yavin, Mara."

"Thanks," Mara said as she stood up and chuckled again. Leave Dark Star? Like Dark Star would let her go without her?


	3. Chapter 3

Mara walked down the boarding ramp of the Jades Fire and looked around at the landing field once she stood on solid ground. She smiled as she saw the man approaching her from the direction of the citadel, dressed in brown Jedi robes. "Hi."

"How was your trip?" Luke asked, once he got close enough.

"Fine, Luke." Without another word, she pulled him into an embrace and they kissed. Pulling back, she smiled up at him. "I missed you."

"I missed you, too, Mara." They stood there for a few moments before Luke blinked and looked down to find a small black animal brushing against his legs. "Uh…"

"Hmm…?" Mara followed his gaze and had to chuckle. "Oh. That's Dark Star."

"You brought a pet?"

"Yes."

"To a jungle moon?"

"She's not so much a pet as she is a companion… She must like you. She didn't warm up to Karrde near that fast." Mara bent down and picked the feline up, then let Luke see her up close.

Luke reached out to pet the animal on the head, and smiled himself when Dark Star leaned into the touch. "Cute… where did you find her?"

"She found me, actually. At that Trade Summit on Corellia three months ago… So, how is training going?"

"Not too bad, really…"

Mara frowned at the way he trailed off. Something was off, even if he wasn't going to come out and say it. Sighing, she handed the feline to him. "Here. I'll get my carryall and you can show me to my room."

Luke watched as she disappeared into her ship, then looked down at Dark Star, who was looking up at him curiously. "Right…"

Mara set her bag down, then turned to face the man who was still holding Dark Star. She smiled, finding it adorable. "All right… So what has you concerned?"

"Can we please talk about something else?"

"No."

"I just…"

"Luke?" She saw the far off expression in his eyes again, and moved to gently remove Dark Star from his arms. She set her down on the bed, then turned to look at him again, concerned. "Is it about your students?"

Luke looked at her finally, surprise clearly in his eyes. "Yes. How did you…"

"Because I know you, Farmboy. What happened?"

"A student died."

"When?"

"Two days ago… and I don't know why or what happened." He looked away for a moment, shaking his head. "And the holocron was destroyed."

"That's not all, is it?"

"No... it's the little things here, and…" Luke shrugged. "I just haven't been able to figure it out."

Mara led him over to the bed and made him sit down, then sat down beside him. There was more here. She could feel it, even as Dark Star climbed in her lap and settled in. "So tell me."

"What?"

"All the little things. I can't help you figure it out if I don't know what is wrong."

Luke looked at her for a moment before nodding. "All right..."

She listened to him for an hour.

~*~*~*~*~*~

Mara sat in the darkness of her room, thinking about the weeks events. First, Corran Horn had borrowed her ship, and then that little upstart Kyp Durron had stolen it and gone who knows where. She shook her head slightly, anger poking around the edges of her control and threatening to cloud her thoughts. Of all the stupid, silly little things...

Suddenly, she felt as if she were being pulled apart from the inside, and couldn't help but gasp in shock. It was over almost as soon as it began, and she was left panting from the suddenness of it.

Reaching blindly, she turned on a light and looked around. No, everything looked fine, and Dark Star was sleeping soundly at the foot of the bed, oblivious to whatever it had been.

Turning her focus inward, she tried… and failed to find what she was looking for. She tried again, but it was as if he simply wasn't there. As if he didn't exist... * Luke? *

When no answer came to her silent plea, she stood up and pulled on a ship suit. Something was definitely amiss and she didn't like it. Not one bit.

He wasn't in his room, nor the Great Hall, not in the cafeteria, or... anywhere else, and she was starting to get angry again at the thought that he was blocking her on purpose all over again.

She shook her head for a moment as she stopped at the door to the room that he'd made into his office. No, he had promised he wouldn't do that again.

"Mara?"

Mara turned to see Cilghal, standing in the entry way to Luke's office. "You haven't seen him, have you?"

The Calimarian shook her head, studying Mara for a moment. "No... You felt something, too, didn't you? A disturbance?"

Mara nodded. "Yes... and now I can't find him."

Cilghal closed her eyes in thought, then turned to look out the window in the office behind her. "Maybe he's on the roof, then."

"What makes you say that?"

"Master Skywalker goes up there to meditate sometimes."

Together, they made their way to the roof of the great temple, being joined by the other students as they went.

On the roof, Mara couldn't help but let out a silent gasp as she saw him. He lay still, lightsaber at his side.

Cilghal dropped to her knees next to him and Mara knelt on the other side, while the Calimarian began to check him over through the Force. After a minute, she stopped and sat back. "He's... I don't know."

"Dead?" Mara asked, haltingly. This close to him, she should have been able to feel something, anything, coming from him. But all she felt was a void.

"No. Not dead."

"Good."

Mara reached down and picked up the lightsaber, and had to blink at the warmness of it. He'd been using his lightsaber to meditate?

Getting an idea, she stood up and got a good look down at the landing field in front of the temple. Down there among the shadows, was the unmistakable form of her ship... the one Kyp had stolen in his haste to leave.

"Trader Jade?" Kam Solusar asked from beside her, concern evident in his voice.

She shook her head and didn't answer him immediately. Instead, she turned back around and rejoined Cilghal at Luke's side. "We can figure it out later, Solusar. For now, let's get him inside."

They did.

"I don't like this," Corran muttered as the three of them stood in the corridor outside what passed for a medical ward, left over from the rebel base some years before. They were waiting for Cilghal while she checked Luke over again.

Mara sighed and glanced at him and Kam Solusar, before shaking her head in frustration. For some reason, she kept flashing back to that conversation with Leia just after the twins had come home for good from Anoth... "I'll second that... This may seem a little out of the blue, but... Well, what does Leia mentioning that Han missed the first birthday that the twins had spent at home have to do with Kyp Durron?"

Kam looked at her for a moment, blinking in muted surprise. "You don't know?"

Mara sighed again. "I was away on a trade run, Solusar. Of course I don't know, or I wouldn't be asking."

"From what I know, Solo went on a Diplomacy run to Kessel. It… didn't go well, and he ended up in the mines. Durron was one of the prisoners."

Mara frowned at that. It actually explained some of the kid's behaviour. Some, anyway. Not all of it. Especially not the part where he'd made off with her now-returned ship. "And?"

"And somehow, together with the wookiee, they escaped." Kam frowned in thought. "I'm not certain if that was before or after Calrissian and Master Skywalker arrived to check out the situation because Solo had been missing way too long..."

Mara held up a hand to forestall him, a connection suddenly made. "Is that why Calrissian is lacking a ship right now? Because it somehow got left on Kessel?"

"Yes."

"Oh..." Mara shook her head, reminded that he'd had another adventure or three, and had nearly gotten himself killed by a lava worm. They'd really have to have a talk at some point about that one. "There's more to that story, isn't there?"

Kam nodded. "They escaped Kessel and were then..." He paused, something having just occurred to him. "Wait..."

Mara would have prodded him for more answers, but Cilghal joined them in the corridor and forestalled it. "How is he?"

"We'll know more when the New Republic medical team arrives, but he seems stable for now." She shivered. "It's errie, how still he is. Almost as if..."

"Don't," Mara told her. Cilghal's large eyes blinked at her, and Mara shook her head. "He's in there, even if we can't feel him." She had to believe it. For all their sakes. For him. "Solusar? You were saying?"

"It's not possible, and even if it were... The thought alone is scary." Kam looked away, frowning in thought.

Mara looked at Cilghal. "Is there a reason he's speaking in riddles about what happened when Kyp Durron escaped Kessel with Han Solo?"

Cilghal stared at her, then turned to look at Kam with a startled expression. "You don't think he could have pulled the Sun Crusher out of Yavin, do you?"

"No, because it just isn't possible."

Mara shared a look with Corran. "Why not? My ship is here and he isn't. He couldn't have just vanished into thin air, you know... And why is it scary to think that he could be in possession of it?"

"Because that ship has torpedoes that can make stars explode," Kam answered succinctly.

That was the last thing she'd expected to hear, and Mara couldn't help but stare at Kam in utter shock. "What?"

Kam's only answer was silence as he looked away again.

~*~*~*~*~

Mara was sitting by Luke's bedside, keeping a vigil for her own sake as well as his. After discussing things in the hallway, she'd sent Kam and Corran away. Cilghal had gone to use the comm and contact the New Republic.

Silently, she shook her head incredulously. For the life of her, she didn't understand how something like that ship could have been kept a secret. If she'd understood Solusar correctly, it had been made by Imperial hands... which meant, logically, that her former master had to have known about it. Right?

She glanced at Luke's sleeping form and had to look away. No matter what she tried, she just hadn't been able to sense him. Everything she had learned over the months he'd been on Byss, and... she still couldn't sense him in the Force at all.

Sighing, she expanded her focus and felt for the students. One by one, she found each one, and smirked a bit when she recognized Dark Star's presence. Then she blinked at the nearness of it and looked down. Funny... she hadn't been aware of Dark Star coming in here...

And yet there she was, curled up next to Mara's feet on the floor.

Mara's smiled widened and she sat back, taking that small bit of comfort for what it was.

Together, Dark Star and Mara kept watch over the unconscious form of the Jedi Master. One of them still wondering how her master could have kept something like the existence of that ship from her.

~*~*~*~*~

Cilghal stopped in the doorway and saw that Mara had gotten a helpful vigil-keeper. Not wanting the break the moment, she slowly began to back away out the door.

"You're not intruding, Cilghal," Mara said suddenly, startling her. "Come in."

"How did you…"

"How do you think?" Mara let that hang there as Cilghal pulled up a chair and joined the two of them.

Cilghal considered the woman in front of her for a long moment before nodding in understanding. She remembered Mara's voice tone up there when she'd not been able to feel his presence. Of course she'd been keeping track of people to make sure they hadn't vanished, too. "Right... the medical team will be here tomorrow."

"And Leia?"

"Two days after that."

They sat there in silence before Cilghal thought of something to say. "You can go and eat something if you need to. I'll stay."

"I'm fine for now." Mara's tone brooked no argument. "But thank you."

Cilghal looked down at the animal on the floor and shook her head. "Normally..."

"...animals aren't allowed in the medical areas?" Mara finished for her.

"Yes."

"You want to try to make her leave? She has claws, and knows how to use them."

"I said 'normally.' This situation is anything but normal."

Mara smiled ruefully. "So true."

~*~*~*~*~*~

Cilghal had gone to greet the medical team as their ship arrived, leaving Mara alone again with a still-unconscious Luke, and Dark Star still at her feet. Sitting there, looking at his still face, she couldn't help but wonder if he was waiting for something to help him wake up.

She remembered that tale of the sleeping princess that Jaina had made her read once. She'd been on Coruscant for a week and Leia had needed a babysitter because Han had been off... apparently getting captured, now that she thought about it.

Mara thought back on that story. An evil had made the princess sleep, and she'd been woken by her love's kiss after defeating the evil one.

Mara sat there and considered Luke's still form for an endless moment. Then she stood and bent over him, gazing at his slack features. It was worth a try, at least.

Then she kissed him on the lips. His cold lips.

A moment went by, then she pulled away and looked at him again. Nothing. Not even a twitch.

Sitting back down, Mara couldn't help but stare at him. He'd never been that cold before.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Half an hour later, Cilghal ushered the medical team into the make-shift medical suite and Mara had to excuse herself and her companion while the team of professionals checked him over themselves.

Glancing back as she reached the door, she had one thought: "Come back to us, Farmboy... Come back to me."

She stood in the corridor outside the medical suite, leaned against the wall, and waited. It hadn't worked. She shook her head. No, of course it hadn't worked. That story was a fable, meant for small children to help them sleep at night.

There was a sound from down near the floor, and she glanced down to see Dark Star chasing a lizard, catch it, and bat it around with her paws.

Mara had to smile at that. At least someone was acting normal.

The medic shook his head, now thoroughly frustrated. "It's like he's in stacis, only without anything to influence it."

"But he's alive?"

The medic glanced at Cilghal for a long moment before nodding. "Yes."

Mara re-entered the medical suite to find four frustrated medics and Cilghal shaking her head. She looked at the medics, then at Cilghal, then at the man still laying on the bed unconscious. "Um... is it that bad?"

Cilghal looked at Mara with heavy eyes. "Other than Master Skywalker being in what looks like suspended animation and being uncertain of how to wake him? No."

Mara nodded for a moment, then looked at the Jedi Healer in Training, in puzzlement. "Wouldn't we be able to feel some small sliver of a presence if he were in a coma under normal circumstances?"

"Look, lady…" One of the medics paused and glanced between her and the patient. "You might, seeing as patients in comas can hear what is going on around them at times…"

"So it's not a normal coma, then." Mara let that hang there as the medics and Cilghal all looked at each other. "Along with what you said about being in suspended animation, what ever that means..."

"It means that he's caught between the moments, Mara," Cilghal clarified.

"Ah."

Later...

Mara shook her head as she listened to Kam and Cilghal talk about moving Luke to another location. "No. I don't think so."

"But..." Kam started to say, before she cut him off with a glare.

"Solusar... how exactly is putting him on the stage in the grand audience chamber going to do wonders for morale?"

"They'll be able to see him, know he still lives?"

Mara glanced at the person in question, then back at Kam. "So you want to put him in a big room that echoes?"

Cilghal frowned. "Well... when you put it that way..."

Mara looked at the man laying on the bed again, and had this sudden pang that maybe what they were suggesting was the right move. Maybe. "Still... it is better than suggesting to put him back up on the roof, isn't it?"

"Jade?" Solusar asked, confused at her sudden change in mindset.

"What? I get the feeling that it would be the best place for him." She frowned in thought, then looked at Kam with a shrug. "I don't know why I'm getting that feeling, but I am."

"Right..."


	4. Chapter 4

Spin. Kick. Thrust. Side step.

Spin. Kick. Thrust. Side step.

In the center of the grand audience chamber, Mara was doing a series of meditation katas. She'd been unable to just sit there and wait for some sign of recovery, and instead had decided to make use of the extra room and excersize a bit.

Spin. Kick. Thrust-

"Very good, my young apprentice. Very good."

Hearing that sudden, impossible voice, Mara turned. Then she frowned. What was her former master doing here? "Master?"

"Yes, Mara. Come closer."

Mara glanced around and was surprised to find that she was no longer in the grand audience chamber of the temple on Yavin4. Rather, she was in a room on Coruscant that she'd seen often as a child. Curious, she moved closer to him. "What is it?"

"I want to teach you a technique with your lightsaber," he nodded to the saber on her belt.

Mara obligingly unlatched it from her belt. "All right..."

He led her to a board that had been set up between two posts. "Slice through this, exactly in the center."

Mara frowned again at the simplicity of the instructions, thumbed the lightsaber on, and was about to do it when something she heard suddenly didn't fit. It was a meow.

Dark Star.

Suddenly, the image of the room evaporated and the board was no longer a board, but a person. Luke, still lying prone and motionless.

Stunned at what she'd been about to do, Mara turned the saber off and dropped it to the floor.

Blinking in disbelief, she realized something. That had not been Palpatine.

~*~*~*~*~*~

Corran was walking by the doorway for the grand audience chamber when Mara stormed out, a mixed expression of fury... and he wasn't quite sure what... clearly on her face. "Mara?"

"I need to find Tionne," Mara said curtly as she swept by him.

Corran watched as she walked away, anger showing even in the way she walked as the sounds from her determinded steps echoed off the walls.

Frowning, he turned and looked into the room that she'd just stormed out of. His first thought was that… no. That wasn't it. Master Skywalker was still laying on the beir that had been set up on the stage on the other side of the room.

Stepping inside the room, he scrutinized the room with the experience of a life time born of law enforcement, looking for any sign as he walked of what could have made the hardened Mara Jade that he'd gotten to know react like that.

Finally, coming to the steps that led to the raised stage, he found something. Bending down, he picked up the lightsaber hilt and looked at it.

Mara had left her lightsaber on the floor. Odd.

"What did you find?" a female voice asked from behind him, making Corran startle. "Sorry."

Corran stood up and turned to find the New Republic medic, who had stayed to monitor the patient, standing there. He looked at her funny. "How long were you watching me?"

"Not long..." She glanced at the lightsaber hilt in his hand. "Isn't that Miss Jade's?"

Corran nodded. "How come you didn't say anything?"

"I've been around enough law enforcement people to know that one does not interrupt an investigative train of thought, and it didn't seem prudent." She smirked at the expression on his face as she stepped around him and walked up the steps.

Corran followed the medic up onto the platform where she was performing an exam with a pen light, even though she knew that Luke was the same as he'd been for four days now... unresponsive.

"Speaking of Miss Jade," the medic asked as she opened one eye with a gloved hand and shined a light into it, then moved the light to check for a response. "Where is she?"

Corran looked down at the hilt in his hand, then shrugged. "She needed to go talk to someone."

"Oh... Now the other one... Want me to take that off your hands? I'll probably see her before you will, as often as she's in here." The medic stood up and put her pen light away. Then she noticed Dark Star sitting on Mara's chair... staring at them.

Corran shook his head. "No. I'll give it back to her later."

"You're sure?"

"Yes… Ms. Hallan?"

"Ailee," the medic corrected him as she looked from Dark Star to Corran and back again. Then an eyebrow went up. "Mr. Halcyon?"

"What?"

"Put the hilt down and back away from it."

Corran blinked at her, not having expected that. "I'm sorry?"

"Just trust me and do it."

Though it was a really odd request, Corran obliged her and backed away.

As she'd thought, Dark Star's penetrating gaze stayed on the lightsaber hilt and the medic frowned. "Interesting… you can pick it up now. Just... don't hold it out in front of you or make any threatening moves with it."

"Why?"

"Our feline friend will take somewhat more than an exception to it, I think... and I have no desire to patch you up, either. Claws, you know."

Corran paused as he stood back up with the hilt in his hand, and turned his attention to the cat... who was glaring at him as only a cat could. "What did I do to you?"

Ailee chuckled. "You didn't do a thing, Halcyon, but that's why I wanted you to put it down..." She slowly approached and offered her hand, which Dark Star smelled, then leaned into. "It's okay, girl... everything's fine... And Halcyon? I wasn't kidding. Put it away."

Corran nodded and latched it on to his belt. "Right. Sorry... How'd you-"

"Animals act a certain way, cats more so."

As Ailee bent down and comforted the feline, Corran made a mental note to ask Mara why Dark Star didn't like her lightsaber hilt.

~*~*~*~*~*~

Corran found Mara in the mess hall, picking at her meal in dejection with a fork. He sat down and waited for her to notice him.

Mara glanced up at him, then looked down at her tray again. "Hi."

"Did you find Tionne?"

Mara nodded, but kept her eyes on her tray. "She's looking through the history of Yavin4 now."

Corran let the silence hang there for a minute before laying her lightsaber on the table. "Found this. Thought you might want it back."

Mara glanced at it, then resumed picking at her food. "Thanks."

"Though it's interesting… Dark Star seems to have developed a dislike for your lightsaber. You wouldn't happen to know why that is, would you?"

Now Mara looked at him and he had to wince at the weight of her gaze. "That's why Tionne is looking through the history of Yavin4. Because something happened."

"What?"

Mara shook her head and picked up her fork again. "I'd rather not talk about it."

"Mara..."

"No."

Corran thought back to where he'd found the lightsaber hilt on the bottom step, as if... "You were upset when I ran into you in the hall, and I found your saber... Did it involve the lightsaber?"

"More than that, but yes."

Corran watched as she picked at her food come more. "Are you actually going to eat that?"

Mara sighed, pushed the tray to the side, and looked at her hands for a long moment. Then she picked up the lightsaber hilt and rolled it over in her hands. "This was his first one, you know?"

Corran blinked at the sudden change in conversation. "It was?"

Mara nodded, not taking her eyes off of it. "He gave it to me after Wayland. Trusted me with it... and..." She glanced up at him, then looked away.

This is like pulling teeth, Corran thought to himself. "And what?"

"Something happened. I'm not certain what, but I know what it wasn't... It wasn't my former master wanting to teach me an incredibly simple technique, I know that much."

Corran frowned at that. "Oh."

"That's why Dark Star dislikes this hilt right now. She saw the whole thing, and stopped me just in time." Mara shuddered, then looked up at him with a puzzled frown. "If you're here, then who is on watch?"

"Ms. Hallan."

Mara blinked, and began to stand. "Then I should go..."

"No. She said to take your time, and also something about a cup of caf. She's got a datapad and planned to do some reading."

Mara settled back into her seat. "You're sure?"

"Very."

"All right…" Mara reached for her tray and pulled it back. She took a bite and frowned. "You know… this isn't quite as good cold..."

Corran stifled a chuckle. "So this thing..."

"Can wait a bit. We've just got to be on our guard so what nearly happened, doesn't."

"I thought we were on our guard."

"More so."

~*~*~*~*~*~

Mara found Ailee sitting in her chair with Dark Star in her lap and reading a datapad intently. "You asked for a cup of caf?"

Ailee looked up at her with a smile, then returned her attention to her datapad. "Sure did. Life just isn't the same without it."

"Ah… What are you reading?"

"Continuing education material. I was so busy last year that I didn't have the chance, what with the uprising and all." She set the datapad down and accepted the cup of caf from Mara. "Thank you."

"You're welcome," Mara said as Ailee took a sip. "Um… you know you're in my chair, right?"

"Yes... And now that you've brought me this sweet nectar of life, I'm ordering you to go take a nap or something."

Mara stared at her in astonishment. "Come again?"

"You heard me. Go."

"But," Mara started to protest, until Ailee leveled a glare at her that rivaled Dark Star at her most fierce. "What?"

"I had to calm your pet down, because what ever happened spooked her to the point of nearly attacking an inanimate object, Miss Jade. Now, I don't know what happened, or why, and at this point, I don't care... So, instead of all that, I'm addressing the obvious and ordering you to take a break. Really. Go take a nap and relax... Either way, I don't want to see you again for six hours or longer." She glanced at the man laying stretched out on the beir, then looked at Mara again. "He'll be fine, so don't try using that argument to get me to change my mind."

"You really want me to go take a nap?"

"Yes." Ailee went back to her reading, leaving Mara to continue to stare at her. "Six hours. I mean it."

Mara glanced at Dark Star, still curled up on Ailee's lap, and nodded finally. "All right. I'll be back."

"In six hours."

"Right... And Ailee?"

"Yes?"

"She's a companion, not a pet." At the annoyed expression Ailee threw her way, Mara shook her head and turned to leave.

Ailee set the datapad down and took another sip, watching Mara walk down the steps. Then she glanced at the unconscious form of the Jedi Master, and shook her head. "I sure hope you appreciate what she's doing for you, Master Skywalker. A person doesn't do that for just anybody."

Hearing that, Mara turned and looked back, wondering about that statement. Then she shook her head and continued walking, leaving Ailee alone with the datapad, the cat, and the man in the coma whom she loved.

~*~*~*~*~*~

Mara entered her quarters, intending to lay down on her bed and sleep, but stopped and looked at it in resignation. It... didn't feel right. Not here.

Turning around, she walked back out and shut the door. She leaned against the wall, trying to think. Ailee had been serious about not wanting to see her for six hours, so she really couldn't go back to the grand audience chamber.

Watching Artoo roll by and whistle at her in forlorn recognition, she got an idea. What was the next best thing to her bed that was kind of comfortable?

An hour later, Mara was sound asleep in the cockpit of Luke's X-Wing.


	5. Chapter 5

Three hours later, Tionne was surprised to find the medic and not Mara. "Wheres..."

"Hopefully taking a much-needed nap," Ailee answered automatically without looking up.

"Oh... It's just that I found something she might find interesting."

Ailee glanced at her. "Tionne, is it?"

"Yes."

"Give it to her tomorrow, all right?" That's when Ailee noticed that Tionne was looking everywhere BUT the beir and she seemed really uncomfortable and on edge.

Tionne nodded, eyes still averted.

"Want to talk about it?" Ailee asked suddenly.

"Talk about what?"

"Oh for the love of..." Ailee stood up and handed Dark Star, who had calmed down and was now purring, to Tionne. "Here. Sit. Now."

"But-" At the glare that Ailee shot at her, Tionne sat down.

"It's perfectly normal to be in shock, but everybody?"

Tionne frowned. "I'm sorry?"

"Your body language, and observations of the others... You have no idea how weird it is when the only person acting even remotely normal is a cat. None at all."

Tionne looked down at Dark Star, now nestled on her lap and purring again. "I guess that would be kind of odd..."

"He's going to be fine, you know."

"Huh?"

Ailee motioned to the beir. "Him."

"You mean he's..."

"No... Not one twitch, pupils don't react to light, nothing... What I'm trying to say it that I don't think it's permanent. There's always an answer, somewhere."

Tionne nodded and took comfort in both her words, and the purring cat on her lap. "Thank you."

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Corran entered the grand audience chamber with a cup of caf in his hand and walked to the raised stage. "Here."

Ailee looked up at him and blinked, then smiled. "Oh. Thank you."

"You sure drink a lot of this stuff, Ms. Hallan."

Ailee nodded, then took a sip. "I know."

"And isn't that your forth one today?"

"Seventh... something you need?"

"Yes. You to go. I'm relieving you."

"I've only been here three and a half hours, Halcyon."

He glared at her, though it didn't work, because she'd gone back to reading the datapad. "Closer to four and a half… Do I have to pull rank, to get you to go?"

"I out rank you."

"Since when?"

"I'm the one with the sedatives, thus I out rank you... Oh, that's gross. Interesting, but gross. And painful. Eeek."

"What is?"

"Ascomycetous Pneumoconiosis."

Corran frowned. "Stop changing the subject. I really am relieving you."

"Nope. I like it in here. It's quiet."

Corran rolled his eyes. "Kam wanted me to relieve you, all right? Rotating watches."

She looked up at him. "Then why were you letting Miss Jade stay in here day and night?"

"She's deadly dangerous and knows more than ten ways to kill someone."

"Ah…" Ailee glanced down at the cat on her lap, then up at him. "You like cats, right?"

"As much as the next person."

"All right, then… Oh, and if Miss Jade comes back in the next four hours, send her back to bed."

"Why?"

"Exhaustion caused the incident earlier." Ailee handed Dark Star to him, stifled a chuckle at the bemused expression on his face, then left. Halfway down the steps, she turned and looked back at him. "And for the record? I used to drink more than eight cups of caf a day. Now, it's a nervous habit that I fall back into because it's something I can focus on."

Corran nodded and she continued on, leaving the room. Then he looked down at the feline in his arms, who was looking up at him. "Where'd they find her, I wonder?"

Dark Star didn't answer him.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

When Mara woke up, it was morning. She looked out of the cockpit and saw the light at the hangar door, and was amazed that she'd slept that long.

Climbing out, and down the ladder, she turned around to find Brakiss walking toward her. "Brakiss. Hi."

Brakiss said nothing, only raising an eyebrow until he got closer to her. He looked at the ship behind her. "Everything in working order?"

"It is."

"All right, then." He turned to walk away, but stopped when she asked a question.

"You're not going to ask why I was..."

"Should I, Jade?"

"No."

"Then, no. I'm not going to ask."

Mara watched him go, then turned to look back at the x-wing. It had been a comfortable, comforting place to sleep.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Cilghal approached the grand audience chamber, and stopped when she saw the medic standing there, leaning against the door frame and looking in. "Ms. Hallan?"

"Shh… I'm finding Miss Jade having to make up with Dark Star entertaining."

Cilghal blinked and looked in to see that Dark Star was doing to cat version of a glare and sitting on the beir between Mara and Master Skywalker's body. Mara would occasionally try to pet her, and Dark Star would hiss or growl. "How long has that been going on?"

"Half an hour. Want me to go kick Miss Jade out?"

"No, I… Oh, that's good." Dark Star had at last allowed Mara to pet her when Mara set her lightsaber on the floor under her chair as a peace offering. "Odd..."

"Not really, but you had to be there, and Dark Star was."

Cilghal shook her head and entered to talk to Mara.

From her seat on the stage, Mara saw Cilghal coming and tried to smile. "Hi."

Cilghal glanced at the lightsaber under the chair, then looked at Mara. "Minister of State Organa-Solo and her family are landing shortly, and I'd like it if you joined us outside."

"Right now?"

"Yes... and what's with Dark Star?"

"She's on guard duty, that's what is with her." Mara patted Dark Star on the head, then bent to retrieve her lightsaber. Suddenly, a low yowl sounded and Mara stopped. "All right, you win. I'll leave it where it is." She stood up, then remembered something. "Wait... who is on watch, then?"

"Ms. Hallan," Cilghal said as she nodded to the woman who had followed her.

Mara glanced at Ailee, then sighed and followed Cilghal. Had it really been a week? It felt longer than that.

~*~*~*~*~*~

Mara stood a short distance away as Cilghal met Leia, and the twins, and Han in front of the Millenium Falcon, not wanting to intrude. After a week of watching over him with nary a peep or something, she just didn't feel like talking.

Looking down at the ground, she suddenly felt someone join the gathered group whose presence didn't feel… wait. What was Calrissian doing here? Frowning, she looked up to see that Lando had indeed joined them, standing behind Han.

"Has there been any change," she heard Leia ask of Cilghal, worry clearly in her eyes.

"No. We've tried every thing we could think of, but..." Cilghal let the sentence hang there in uncomfortable silence.

"Mara!" Jaina suddenly yelled as she and Jacen ran to her.

Mara bent down and hugged them both with a smile. "Hey, you two. Been giving your father trouble?"

Jacen nodded. "Yes."

"Good," Mara told him. She caught Han's wry look and smirked at him. He rolled his eyes back at her, and she had to suppress a chuckle.

"We got lost," Jaina added. "And met people!"

Mara blinked in surprise. "Really? Were they nice?"

"Yes."

"That's good… But you shouldn't get lost like that. Getting lost is bad." She'd have to ask Leia about that one later…

"Is Uncle Luke okay?" Jaina suddenly asked with pleading eyes.

Mara looked up at Leia, wondering how to phrase it. "He's… hurt, Jaina. Come on, everyone. Let's get inside."

~*~*~*~*~*~

Lando hung back and watched as Han, Leia, and the twins got their first look at Luke on the raised stage in the grand audience chamber. He'd seen the younger man injured before. The first time they'd met, in fact.

But... even from a distance, he could tell that this was different.

Mara turned and saw Lando standing there, and her frown softened. She joined him. "Calrissian?"

"He's so still…"

Mara nodded slowly. She couldn't argue on that point, though she really wished she could have. "Yes… Why are you here?"

Lando shook himself out of his stupor, then looked at her. "We were going to meet on Coruscant about a business opportunity. When you didn't show, and I heard about Luke, I decided to come to you."

Mara stared at him. A business opportunity? In all the commotion, she'd forgotten about that… Then she nodded, glanced back at the stage, and pulled him to the door so they could talk in private. "Sorry about that."

"You don't need to apologize."

"But I should have commed you to let you know that I wasn't going to make the meeting."

Lando had to resist a snort in laughter as he reached out and touched her arm. "You've had a lot on your mind, Mara. I understand completely."

Mara looked at him in surprise, then smiled tightly. "Thank you… So, what was this about a business opportunity?"

"It can wait."

"Just tell me, Calrissian."

"Kessel."

Mara blinked at that. "Kessel? Why?"

"Told you it could wait." Lando glanced back toward the stage and saw everyone staring at Han. "What happened here, Mara?"

"I don't know. All I do know is that we found him like that, out cold, on the roof, and my ship was suddenly back where it belonged… And the Farmboy hasn't moved or woken up since. Not one twitch, nothing."

Lando saw the expression on her face at the word 'twitch' and heard the tone of her voice, and frowned. "And?"

"And the medical team was stumped."

"That's not what I asked."

Mara sighed as she looked at him again. "Then what were you asking?"

"How are you holding up?"

"That's none of your concern, Calrissian."

"Mara…"

"No." As he continued to look at her in concern, she had to look away again. "I'm fine."

"If you say so." But he didn't believe it, not at all.


	6. Chapter 6

The silence was heavy as everyone, minus Ailee who had volunteered to stay and pull watch duty, sat down together for evening meal.

Mara, who hadn't sat down with everyone else in a week, was picking at her food and listening as the trainees voiced their concerns about continuing their training and Leia admonished them for talking like that.

Then, suddenly, screams sounded in her ears and she gasped at the impact of wave after wave of pain and betrayal. Dimly, she heard Streen cry out, but couldn't make out the words through the screams that shook her to her core.

And then just as suddenly, after what seemed like eons, the screams fell silent, and Mara pushed Lando's hand away as she stood up, looked at everyone there, and fled the table.

Outside in the corridor, Mara stopped and put her hand against the wall to steady herself. That… had been too much.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Dark Star jumped down from the beir and landed on the floor in one graceful motion. She saw one of those lizards scurry toward a corner and she followed it. She followed it around the big room, and then played with it for a minute, and then secured it firmly in her teeth.

Turning around with the lizard in her mouth, Dark Star headed back toward the stage.

As she neared the stage, Dark Star noticed something amiss: sitting on the beir next to her companion's favored one was... her companion's favored one?

Jumping back up onto the stone beir, she stared at him as he looked around with a dazed and unsettled expression on his face.

The favored one looked down at her. "Well... this is different." He reached over to pet her and his hand went right through her head as she stared up at him. "Huh..."

As Dark Star settled down to eat her lizard, Luke couldn't help but watch her and look at the unfamiliar woman sitting in the chair reading a data pad, and wonder... "What is going on here?" His only answer was an echoing silence.

Luke was startled out of wondering what was going on by the voice of the woman reading the data pad. "I wonder what they would have been doing in a sewer to find that out?" He turned back to see her shrug to herself and look over to see Dark Star with her lizard. "Well, she's certainly clearing the hall of lizards. Good girl." Then she lapsed into reading the data pad again.

Luke stood up and was about to say something when he heard the doors opened on the other side of the room, and the woman looked up, frowning. "I hope she ate something."

He turned to find Mara walking crisply to the stage, appearing more disturbed than he'd ever seen her. "Mara?"

"Did you eat?" the woman asked, still frowning.

"Yes," Mara said when she got close enough.

"Really?"

"Yes."

"Good."

Mara climbed the steps, and had to step aside in surprise when Dark Star went tearing by her. "Odd..."

"No, it isn't. She's chasing another lizard."

Luke turned to see that the woman was correct, and Mara nodded in agreement. "Good."

The woman's next question brought Luke's attention back to Mara herself. "Is something wrong?"

"Hmm?"

"More than usual, I mean."

Mara turned to look at the woman, and Luke saw the tightness in her posture, and the pain behind her eyes. "Something happened... There were screams."

The woman paused in thought. "Is this one of those Force things?"

Luke blinked at that. Not a trainee, then. Not a new one that had arrived without him knowing… wait… "Screams? What screams?"

"Yes," Mara said simply. Then she tilted her head to the side a bit, eyes curiously searching.

"Oh... You all right, or should I ask? Quite frankly, you look like you went three rounds with a tumbler."

"I'm fine."

"I'll believe it when you stop being monosyllabic... And no, I'm not leaving to go eat until I know you're in your right mind. Until then, sit down."

Mara stared at her. "Really, Ailee. I'm fine."

So that's what her name is, Luke thought.

"Just shaken? Or stirred?" Ailee glanced at her and saw the incredulous expression. "Oh. Sorry... my brother was a bartender."

Mara snorted. "Right."

Ailee smiled and stood up. "Close enough... Was everyone this shaken, or just you?"

"Probably everyone but Solo and Calrissian."

Ailee's eyes widened. "Even the kids?"

"Probably especially the kids."

Luke watched at the woman rushed out, haste in her steps. Then he paused... Leia and Han were here with the twins? And Lando? Just how long had it been?

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Mara sat down and massaged her aching temples. The... whatever it was... had faded, but now her head hurt like nothing else. She heard a noise and glanced up with a wince to see that Dark Star was batting a lizard around with her paws again.

"Guess she likes 'em," Mara said quietly to herself. She was glad for the silence for now, as it was soothing to her somewhat frayed nerves to just sit here and watch as Dark Star played with a lizard.

Her short respite was interrupted by Leia coming in and joining her on the stage. "Han and Lando are going after Kyp Durron."

"Was that what that was?"

"Yes… Lando wanted to come and check on you, but I told them just to go."

Mara looked up at her, suddenly realizing that the twins hadn't come in with her. "Where are Jacen and Jaina?"

"Tionne and Kirana Ti are watching them for the moment..." Leia glanced over at her brother's motionless body, then looked at Mara again. "How are you?"

"Leia..."

"What?"

"Not now, all right?"

"Why not?"

"I just… don't want to talk about it." Mara looked away from her penetrating gaze and watched at Dark Star jumped back up on the beir again… and stared at nothing. "Huh... Ailee's wrong."

"About what?"

"Dark Star never just stares at thin air like that, for one."

Leia turned and saw what Mara meant. Then she frowned. "Is she... leaning?"

"That, or she's falling over really slowly."

~*~*~*~*~*~

Dark Star was leaning into something, all right: Luke's translucent hand. He was concentrating on not putting his hand through her head, but ON her head. It had taken three tries, but now he could sort of do it.

Which was why Dark Star was leaning into his hand as he held it there firmly.

Then he slipped and his hand went right through her, and she glared up at him. "Sorry."

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Mara frowned. She'd heard a low sort of static of a whisper earlier, and it was back again. Odd...

Mara and Leia watched as Dark Star glared at nothing and then leaned into thin air again, and then Mara shrugged and turned to look at Leia. "So… did Solusar give you a comm link yet?" She held hers up so Leia could see it.

Leia took her eyes off the cat, looked at the small device that Mara was holding up, and shook her head. "No, not yet… What's that button on the side for? Comm links don't usually have that."

"We found these in a storage locker, and I think the look outs used them when the base was here. The button is an alarm setting. As for why… something happened and I just wanted to be cautious. Better safe and feeling idiotic, than sorry later."

Leia nodded in understanding. "That makes sense… I'll ask him for one."

"Good." Mara looked toward the door and saw Artoo come in. "Is it that time already?"

"For what?"

"Artoo's visit. Comes in, doesn't stay long, but takes sensor readings as a way to monitor…" Here Mara motioned to the beir. "Comes in like clockwork every night."

"Oh." Leia watched as Artoo crossed the room join them on the stage and beeped to acknowledge the two of them. "Hello, Artoo."

Artoo ran his sensor sweep, then trilled in a seemingly sad tone and turned to leave. Before he got so much as five feet, however, they heard a light bang come from one of his side panels, almost as if a rock had hit him.

Mara frowned. "Wait, Artoo." At her words, Artoo stopped where he was and rotated his dome to look at her. "Analyze that sound. Did anything physical hit you just now?"

They waited, and then Artoo beeped in the negative.

Mara nodded. "Thank you… You can go now, little guy." When Artoo was out of earshot on the other side of the room, Mara glanced at Dark Star thoughtfully. Some things were odder than they looked. Hmmm…

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Later on, after Leia left to put the twins to bed, Mara was frowning and witness to Dark Star walking in a sort of weird pattern on the stage behind the beir. *It almost seems like she's… no. She couldn't be pacing, could she?*

But as Mara watched, she became increasingly convinced that Dark Star was indeed pacing, which didn't make any sense at all. Because cats, especially this one, didn't suddenly develop new habits out of the blue without there being a reason for it.

And then Dark Star stopped her pacing pattern and jumped back up on the beir. Mara was about to shrug if off when suddenly she hissed, facing the rear wall and down on all fours with her hears plastered against her head, and her tail waving menacingly.

Mara shivered, and suddenly realized that the air in the room seemed to have grown colder, even though nothing seemed to have changed aside from Dark Star's behaviour.

Dark Star hissed again, drawing Mara's attention back to her. She was growling, too.

And then, almost as quickly as it began, Dark Star relaxed and began to clean her fur.

Mara looked hard at the wall, but all she saw was a wall, stones, and windows on either side. What had Dark Star seen that had made her react like that?

This was getting odder… No. Mara shook her head. Odd was not the word for it. She wasn't quite certain what was, but "odd" wasn't it. Peculiar, maybe? Then she nodded to herself. Yes, peculiar worked.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Mara was dozing lightly in her chair when a feather-light touch on her shoulder brought her back to full wakefulness with a jolt. Opening her eyes, she came face to face with someone both translucent and familiar. "Luke?!"

Then, with an expression of utter surprise, he faded from view, leaving her staring at nothing but air and wondering if it had been her imagination making her see things she desperately wanted.

Shaking herself, she looked around and saw a very real problem, figment of her imagination or no. In the middle of the room, slowly turning in circles with his eyes closed and muttering, was Streen.

Eyes narrowing in confusion, Mara stood up... and that's when she felt the first stirrings of wind and realized what was going on. "Oh no you don't!"

She found her commlink and activated the alarm, then tried to spring into action. Her intent was to tackle Streen to the floor and wake him up, but before she could get so much as a meter, a volley of wind stopped her in her tracks. "Wait..." She glanced back and realized that the target was the man in the coma. Luke.

Bracing herself against the wind while backing up to protect him, she kept her eyes locked on Streen.

Less than a minute later, reinforcements began showing up. Kam Solusar was first, then Leia, Kirana Ti, and Cilghal.

"Tackle Streen!" Mara yelled over the wind.

It wasn't as easy as it sounded.


	7. Chapter 7

As everyone regrouped and Ailee ran a physical to check Luke over for any injuries, Mara looked hard at Kam. "I told you that moving him in here was a bad idea, Solusar. I don't care about good intentions... that, and two creds, will buy you a cup of caf."

"You didn't have to agree to it," Kam told her defensively.

Mara glared at him, annoyed to be reminded of what had led to moving him. "Good point. I didn't." She would have said more, but Ailee interrupted her.

"All right..." Ailee glanced between the two of them, frowning. "Could you two refrain from injuring each other, please?"

Mara sighed and looked at her. "How is he, Ailee?"

"Fine, for someone who nearly got blown out a window by a sleepwalking student... Where's the old guy? I'm checking him over next." Mara pointed, and Ailee left them to talk to Streen, who was sitting between Kirana Ti and Corran, staring off into the distance.

Mara thought she saw someone move out of the corner of her eye, and turned. Then she frowned. There was no one there.

"Mara?"

Mara turned back from her observation of thin air to find Tionne coming toward them, data pad in hand. "What is it, Tionne?"

"That information you wanted me to look through. Found this... You may want to look at it."

Mara accepted the data pad from Tionne and scrutinized the information for a minute. Then she looked at Tionne again. "But this says that they defeated him."

"Read it again."

Kam frowned. "What is it?"

"Mara had me look through historical documents yesterday. When Streen woke up and cried about a Dark Man, I remembered it," Tionne told him while throwing a glance at the old hermit who was being checked out by Ailee still.

"Oh shavit," Mara breathed, finally understanding. "I saw this thing."

"Saw what?" Kam asked, confused. He got his answer when she handed him the datapad.

"Okay," Ailee said as she came back. "He's fine, too. More than a little shocked by what he almost did, but fine physically… Your turn, Miss Jade."

"Mine? Why mine?"

"Medical decision, or I'm kicking you out for the rest of the night... Your call."

Mara rolled her eyes. "Ailee, I'm fine. Really." And now she was having the oddest sense of déjà vu...

"Wait," Kam said as he looked up from the data pad. "Are you saying that we've got a ghost?"

"That's exactly it," Mara told him. "Plus, it tried to do to me what it did to Streen, so the theory is looking more credible all the while."

"Ghosts?" Ailee asked, frowning. "You mean he wasn't just sleepwalking? He was possessed?"

"Some thing like that," Mara told her. Then she remembered something... "Why were you late answering the alarm, anyway?"

"I was outside, star and planet gazing," Ailee said with a shrug. "I'd have gotten here sooner, but... you know the lift takes time, right? Also, this place is huge and I still don't know my way around."

Mara just shook her head, then glanced over to where Leia was sitting in the chair on the stage, holding onto the twins, who had fallen asleep again. "You're sure he's all right?"

"Him? Other than still having a GCS of basically zero and a student trying to kill him while sleepwalking? Oh, yeah. He's wonderful... And stop changing the subject, Miss Jade."

"Seriously, I'm fine."

"Um-hmm… and Mr. Wind over there didn't just pick you up and nearly throw you out a window along with our sleeping prince..."

Mara looked away as Ailee passively glared at her, again seeing something out of the corner of her eye that looked like a person. Again, there was no one there. She sighed, then looked at Ailee. "All right..."

"Come over here, then." Ailee led her to the steps. "Sit." Mara grudgingly sat down. "Anything hurt?"

"No."

"Got any bruises I can't see?"

"No."

"How many fingers am I holding up?"

Mara stared at her as she held up both hands, wide open. "Ten... What does that have to do with anything?"

"Checking for a concussion. If you had a concussion, you'd have said twenty."

The explanation was so ridiculous that Mara couldn't resist laughing. "Thanks. Good to know."

"Not done yet... Laughing make your head hurt?"

"No."

"Good. You're cleared." Ailee smiled at her good naturedly, then left her there. Mara watched as she went over and pulled Kirana Ti aside to talk to her, then shook her head.

Out of view, Luke was incredibly glad that he'd been able to wake Mara. Glad he'd been able to touch her, even if just for an instant. And glad that Dark Star had let him practice.

Looking down at the cat seated at his spectral feet, he smiled. "Thank you, Dark Star."

Mara turned and saw Dark Star sitting up on the top step. No... surely Dark Star couldn't have said anything. "Weird. Could have sworn…"

"Okay, everyone checks out," Ailee said as she returned. "If we're done having a crisis and talking about a possible ghost infestation, I'm going to bed."

"Think you can find your room?" Mara asked in a teasing tone.

"Sure, I can find it. It's the only one with my orange tag beside the door... unless that one is actually Halcyon's, which I doubt. I'd have seen him in there at least once by now."

"He's married, you know."

"True, but a girl can look and he's cute." Ailee glanced back toward the man in question. "And he brought me caf when he really shouldn't have."

Mara snorted at that. "Go to bed already, would you?"

"I'm kicking you out come morning," Ailee told her, then left the hall.

"She can try," Mara muttered to herself, then glanced back up at Dark Star, who had now moved to the floor, and was practicing that weird pacing behavior again.

"Jade, are you sure that-"

"Tell me I'm imagining that, Solusar," Mara said as she interrupted him and pointed to Dark Star. "She did that earlier, too."

"Huh?" Kam looked. Then he had to frown at the sight of Dark Star pacing back and forth. "Odd... It almost seems like she's following someone, and they're thinking..."

Mara thought back over the events of the past several hours. Dark Star had paced just like she was doing now, then she'd kissed at the rear wall for no explicable reason, then she'd acted normal and curled up on the beir again.

And then there was what had woken her up… No. That was impossible, wasn't it? And if it weren't, why didn't she feel anything... oh.

Slapping herself mentally, Mara slowly opened herself back up, and... no. No trace, just the people that she saw in front of her, and Leia and the twins behind her up on the stage.

"It does, at that," Mara muttered as she stood up.

Kam felt her sudden openness through the Force and blinked. "Jade?"

"I was totally open when the wave hit," she told him shortly. "I had been all week, and then the wave hit, and I forced myself to close down in self defense... wait. She acted funny earlier, and hissed at the wall... Do you think we had more than one ghost visit tonight, and maybe she reacted to it?"

"That sounds likely... but what about now?"

"Right now, I'm going to trust that everything is fine. She's not hissing at anything, so it must be… As for the pacing? I don't know… But we can solve that mystery later. Get everyone to leave and go back to bed, would you? It's been a busy evening… morning. Which ever it is."

Kam turned to watch as Mara climbed the steps, then turned back to watch as Dark Star paced some more. "Right..."

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Mara sat in the chair, watching as Dark Star sat out there in the middle of the floor, and wondered. Was it possible? Was Jaina right? And if it was possible, why couldn't she see what the little girl had seen?

All she saw with her eyes was her companion sitting on the floor looking up, then over at her, then up again. All she felt with her senses was Dark Star out there, and the trainees, and Leia, and the twins, and... if she searched a bit longer, Ailee, who was hard to find because she just wasn't Force sensitive.

But right here, when she should have been able to see and feel what Jaina saw, she didn't.

Why not?

Turning, she looked at his body where it lay once again on the stone beir and considered what she now knew.

One, Kyp had been here. That much was obvious.

Two, Luke had most likely met up with him on the roof and there had been a confrontation that resulted in a loss of consciousness that greatly resembled a state of suspended animation. Or, as Cilghal had put it, he was "caught between moments."

Three, somewhere out there, Kyp had used the Sun Crusher and killed an entire system. She shuddered at the memory of millions of people, gone in an instant of firey destruction, remembering the screams that had echoed within one another and seemed like they would never stop.

Four, there was a dark presence here. It had appeared to her and tried to trick her, had made Streen attack in his sleep, and according to the information that Tionne had managed to find, it had a name. Exar Kun.

Five... either Dark Star had started pacing on her own, or she was following someone around that Jaina thought looked like Luke. Somehow, watching the dark colored feline, Mara felt the latter was far more likely.

Six... there was the whole matter of what to do about the kid currently in possession of something that could make stars go nova, when and if Solo and Calrissian were able to get him back. She shook her head at that thought. No, best not to think of that right this moment. There would be time enough for that later.

Getting back to the point, she thought to herself, how to figure out if what Jaina saw really was the case...

Standing up, she moved to sit on the steps, watching as Dark Star came toward her and sat again at the foot of the steps. Then she stared up at her, and Mara had to frown at the sudden attention. "What?"

They stared at one another for a minute before Mara closed her eyes and focused herself inward. Her former master had taught her about an aspect known as a circle of influence, how she was within her circle when she was within herself. The next circle out was the immediate area, and so forth. Over time, it had become an unconscious thing to reach out and withdraw, to take notice of everything and anything.

Starting at her center, she slowly ventured out in a spiral, a step at a time.

The first oddity she came upon was a blank area, a little to her left. Not the absence of the Force, but a blank slate. As if something should have been there, but wasn't. A void, where there shouldn't have been a void.

Taking note of that, she continued the spiral, and found Dark Star... whose attention wasn't actually focused on her, but rather... on the blank area to her left?

Mara silently asked Dark Star for permission, and suddenly she was seeing through her eyes. And there, about three feet to her left where the blank spot had been, was a plainly visible, if more than a little translucent and glowing blue, Luke. Luke, who was sitting there on the same step and watching her with an expression of interested curiosity.

Mara held the contact for a moment longer, then let go and opened her eyes to look down at Dark Star again as the feline looked up at her. "So that's what you were trying to tell me. Thank you... And... Luke? We're working on it."

Luke, who had been watching her meditate and finding it interesting, blinked at suddenly being addressed directly. "Mara?"

Mara paused. There it was again, that soft static of a whisper that held no meaning. So it had been him that she'd heard just after the wave and not something else. "Say something. I think I heard you just now, and earlier, too."

"Huh?"

"I'm not kidding, Farmboy. Talk to me. I think I heard you, but there were no words behind it."

"Um…" Not having had anyone notice him in five hours besides Dark Star left him only one thing... "Dark Star is mad at me because I can't scratch behind her ears and my hand keeps going right through her head."

Mara tilted her head, trying to focus on the words. "What? Something about an ear?"

"Yes. Dark Star's. And she's mad about it." Actually, he was fairly certain that she wasn't, but it was all he could think of to say.

Mara turned to look in his direction, and had to stare. Slowly, as if having been out of focus, a figure she recognized faded in on the step beside her. "This is ridiculous. Why would she be mad at you?"

"You heard that?"

"Getting stronger every second, and yes..." She smiled at him. "There you are... We are really going to have to do something about the see-through thing you've got going on, Luke. It's just not you."

He stared at her. "You can see me?"

"In the blue-glowing not-so-flesh... thank Jaina and Dark Star."

They sat there for a long moment in total silence just looking at each other before Luke broke it. "What's going on?"

"What do you mean?"

"How long was I out? Because suddenly there's a woman I don't know with a data pad, and Leia's here with the twins, and Han and Lando were here, and..."

Mara turned and looked behind her where his body was, then looked at him with raised eyebrows. "Better question would be, what's the first thing you saw when you became aware again? Because, technically? You're still out."

Luke sighed in frustration. She was right about that, even if he didn't want to think about it. "Dark Star with a lizard, and that woman with a data pad wondering something about a sewer, earlier tonight before you came and she made you laugh." Luke paused and thought about it, then looked at her curiously. "And who is she, anyway?"

Mara shook her head. "I'm not going to explain her, because... well, I'd just rather not." Now it sort of made sense. She hadn't heard him before because he hadn't been there, and the timing coincided with the wave. "You heard what I said earlier about there being screams?"

"Yes."

"Kyp used the Sun Crusher, and we think he used it to destroy Carida... And I think, because I'm not totally certain, that that was what caused you to be... like this. The wave hit just before I kicked Ailee out, and Dark Star had a lizard then."

"She was eating it."

Mara nodded. "And as for how long... It's been a week."

"Oh."

Something occurred to Luke as they lapsed into silence, and he tilted his head in question. "There is something I'm wondering, though..."

"About what?"

"Why was your lightsaber under that chair?"

"Peace offering," Mara said automatically as Dark Star joined them on the steps. "The furred one here took an issue with something and..."

"The hilt ended up under the chair?"

"Yes." Mara's eyes suddenly narrowed as she stroked Dark Star's head. "She saw it, didn't she?"

"Saw what?"

"This… thing, what ever it is. She saw it and really didn't like it."

"Oh, you mean Exar Kun. Yes, she did." Luke reached over and focused as he held his hand to Dark Star's head, showing Mara just how he'd been able to wake her up earlier. "She let me practice, too."

"It looked like she was falling over..." Then his hand went through her head and Mara blinked in surprise as Dark Star glared at him again. "No wonder you can't scratch behind her ears. Where's your focus, hmm?"

"It's not as easy as it looks, you know."

Mara got his attention and he looked at her. "We'll figure this out, all right?"

Luke nodded. "All right."

They spent the next couple of hours there on the steps.


	8. Chapter 8

Mara looked toward the door when she felt a very faint but recognizable presence approaching. "Oh, good."

"What?" Luke asked curiously.

"Won't she be surprised that she doesn't have to argue with me to get me to leave you for six hours or more," Mara noted as she stood up and stretched.

Luke stared at Mara as she moved to sit in the chair. "Argue with you?"

Mara rolled her eyes. "Be glad you missed it, Farmboy."

"But… argue with you?"

"I was spending night and day in here," Mara told him frankly. At his expression, she smiled. "You in coma. Me in love with you. Remember?"

Luke slowly nodded and smiled back. "I love you, too, Mara." He glanced toward the door and saw that woman with a datapad in one hand and a cup in the other. "Oh, that's who you meant."

"Yes." Mara waited until Ailee got close enough to talk to, then stood up. "Good morning, Ailee."

Ailee didn't look up. "Hi."

"What were you reading last night, by the way?" Mara was curious about what Luke had said about a sewer and couldn't resist asking.

Ailee looked up and frowned at her. "Why? I didn't think you were interested in medical things."

"Just curious."

"Information on a bacterial form of poisoning that can originate from a Bunkurd Sewer." Ailee motioned with the hand that was holding the datapad toward the door. "Six hours, Miss Jade. Go catch a few winks or something."

"Okay." And with that, Mara walked away.

Luke stayed behind just long enough to see Ailee blink in surprise and look down at Dark Star, who had reclaimed her seat on the beir. "That was odd. Usually, she argues."

~*~*~*~

Corran was eating breakfast in the messhall when Mara sat down across from him with a full plate and regarded him with a serious expression. "Good morning, Mara. Little early, aren't you?"

Mara rolled her eyes. "We have a problem."

Corran paused, then set his fork down. "More of a problem than we have already?"

"Yes."

"Which would be what, exactly?"

She took a bite, then looked at him again, and motioned to her left. "Luke's up."

Corran stared at her, looked where she indicated, then at her again. "He's awake?"

"Awake? No. Aware? Yes... and right here, watching me eat..." Again, she motioned to her left. "Happened last night."

Corran stared at her as she began to eat again. She hadn't had that much interest in food all week. "Really?"

"Really... And he's somewhat less confused than we are, but... We've got to fix this, because the translucent thing? It's getting on my nerves."

"Right..."

Mara's head came up suddenly and she turned to find Ailee coming toward them. "Aren't you supposed to be on watch?"

"Just making sure you're all right. You left so fast we didn't do our morning ritual arguing." She looked at the plate in front of Mara, then smiled. "Feeling better?"

"Yes."

"Good."

As Ailee left them, Mara turned back and regarded Corran seriously. "Was I that bad?"

"Worse," Corran told her with a chuckle.

Mara turned and looked to her left. "No, Farmboy. She's a medic... You really expected New Republic Medical to leave a bunch of trainees alone with a man in an unexplained coma that stumped them? ...Good. Glad we're clear on that."

"Mara?" Corran asked slowly.

Mara turned back and took another bite. "What?"

"He's really there?"

"Would I really take up a sudden habit of talking to thin air for kicks?"

"Um... no. No, you wouldn't."

Just then, Kam joined them farther down the table. "Have a peaceful rest of the evening, Jade?"

"As it happens… yes. Figured out why Dark Star was pacing, too."

"That's good…" Kam began to eat his breakfast, and then realized that she seemed different this morning than she had the night before. More... cheerful? "Did something happen?"

"What makes you think that?"

"This is the most cheerful I've seen you in a week."

Mara stared at him. Had every last person here noticed? "Dark Star was following Luke around."

"Oh... Huh?" Kam looked at Corran, who shrugged and nodded.

"Just what I said..." She motioned to her left again. "My guess, based on what he said, is that he's been aware since the wave hit... And he couldn't make up something as odd as Ailee wondering to herself about a sewer, especially not when she really was."

Kam nodded. "Right... So how do we get him back to where he belongs?"

"He doesn't know," Mara said after listening for a moment. "I, however, think that the answer lies in the cause itself."

"Kyp?" Corran asked.

"No. The dark thing that stupidly tried to kill him using other people..." She glanced around the mess hall, taking note of who was there. "How is Streen this morning, by the way? He isn't here."

"He sequestered himself to his room after what happened last night," Kam told her firmly.

"Ah... Get him out of there later, would you? We need to make a plan, and I get the feeling that we all need to be involved." She took one last bite, then stood up with her tray. And yawned. "For now, though..."

"Go get some sleep, Jade."

"Yeah…" Mara glanced to her left again in question. "You think you can manage to keep an eye on things? ...Good."

After Mara walked away, Kam looked seriously at Corran. "She's right, isn't she?"

"I think so."

~*~*~*~

Mara woke up to a set of familiar, if translucent, blue eyes staring at her from two inches away. She stared back, almost unsure of what to say. "Luke?"

"Leia's going to Anoth. She left."

Mara sat up and continued to stare at him, not really understanding. "And Anoth would be?"

"Doesn't matter… but Winter needs warning if it's been compromised."

Mara frowned at him. "You had better start making sense, Farmboy."

"Do I have to?"

"Yes." She waited for a minute, then shrugged and got out of bed. "Fine. Don't tell me."

"You'll be mad."

"I'm already mad, Luke. One more thing isn't going to make a difference." She paused and looked at him. "You wouldn't happen to have an outfit request, would you?"

Luke startled at the change in subject matter. "Green?"

"We're talking about clothes, not your lightsaber."

"I'm talking about your eyes."

Mara nodded, suppressing a smile. "Flattery will not get you out of that explanation, you know."

"But will it make you less mad when I do explain?"

"Maybe, maybe not."

~*~*~*~

Cilghal was waiting at the entrance of the grand audience chamber when Mara showed up to take over the watch. "Hi... Leia had to..."

"Go to Anoth, what ever that is?"

"Um… yes. How did you..."

"Farmboy stared me into wakefulness, then said the same thing," Mara calmly explained, then looked to her right. "No. You still haven't told me what it is."

Cilghal tilted her head in question. "Anoth is..."

Mara held up a hand to silence her. "No, I want to hear it from Luke. Apparently, he thinks I'll be upset with him..."

"I don't understand."

"Solusar didn't tell you? Jaina solved the mystery of Dark Star's behavior last night. You remember that, right?"

"Yes. It was hard to miss... and things have been a bit hectic, what with Terfin showing up with the news that Anoth was compromised because of him."

"Ah. Well, she was following him. Luke, I mean... It took an hour or two, and now he's annoying me by not giving a straight answer."

"Oh."

Mara looked at thin air again. "Well? You gonna explain, or what?" She listened intently, then glared. "You're right. Something like that would make me upset. Good plan... except for the part where some person finds your secured information and people are put in danger because you had the mistaken notion that the kids needed to be away from their parents for the first two years of their lives... Other than that, it's perfect."

Cilghal blinked as Mara turned on her heel and walked away. "Where are you going?"

"To do what he asked me to do. Find his comm codes."

~*~*~*~

Winter answered the comm to find the last person she expected to see on the other end. "Mara Jade?"

"Hello, Winter... Luke would have made this comm himself, but he's come down with a case of invisibility and can't touch anything."

"Um... right. How can I help you?"

Mara looked at her seriously. "Leia's on her way to Anoth, probably after she finds Admiral Ackbar."

"Why?"

"Anoth has been compromised... I'd tell you to get away from Anoth, but the Farmboy here thinks you should wait for Leia."

Winter frowned. "He's invisible?"

"Well... yes. This is going to sound weird, but he fell into a coma a week ago and now... he's not in his body... You're the one who wanted to make the comm, Luke. Did you think I wouldn't have to explain it? Not that simple and you know it."

Winter blinked at her talking to thin air. "Right... We'll keep a tight watch."

"Good. Yavin IV out."

Winter sat back and stared at the now-blank comm screen. Coma? Invisible? No wonder he hadn't checked in earlier in the week...

~*~*~*~

Mara released the button for the comm. and sat back to look at Luke, eyes narrowed. "Now, then... are there any other plans that I should know of that could put people in danger like that?"

Luke shook his spectral head. "No."

"Good... That was some plan, Farmboy."

"I never said it was perfect, Mara."

Mara stood up. "I know that... But the idea that they were better off away from their parents? That was bad. No one is better equipped than a parent to guide a child."

"Are you done? I feel bad enough about it as it is."

She sighed. "Do you understand what I'm trying to say? Actions have consequences. I know you know this."

Luke nodded. "Yes, Mara. I understand."

"Then yes. I'm done..." She looked at him slyly. "For now."

~*~*~*~

She sat in a chair in the middle of a room that, years earlier, had been used to plan an all out attack on a dreaded war machine. The chairs were in need of some cleaning and there were vines and animal droppings littering the floor, but she could imagine many pilots sitting in this room for a briefing.

As people began to file in, Mara sighed and finally looked at Luke, who had been pacing for a good long while. "Stop it."

Brakiss, who was closest to her, stopped in mid-motion as he sat down, and blinked in confusion. "Stop what?"

"Not you. Him... All the pacing is irritating me. Really, Luke. Stop with the nervous pacing, okay?"

Brakiss moved to say something, but was stopped by Corran putting a hand on his arm and shaking his head slightly. Still not really understanding, Brakiss sat down. "So... what is this about?"

"We've got a problem," Kam told him.

"I know that, Solusar."

"What he means," Mara said with a glance at Luke, who had now stopped pacing and was watching them intently. "Is that we have more of a problem than we thought we did… and Luke is invisible, because the problem… created this mess."

"I don't understand," Kirana Ti spoke up, confusion clearly in her voice. "Invisible?"

"Yes… and right over there." Mara heard the door open, and turned to watch as Cilghal entered with the twins, and their eyes lit up when they noticed their uncle. "And I'm not the only one who can see him, either."

"Uncle Luke!" Jacen yelled, pulling at Cilghal's hand as she walked in with them.

"Told you I saw him," Jaina said proudly.

Mara glanced at Luke. "Think you and Cilghal can go and keep Ailee company with the twins?"

"Yes," Luke answered, as Jacen reached him and tried to grab his translucent hand. "Jacen, I'm not solid."

"Awwww!" Jacen whined.

Mara shook her head, amused at the little boy's antics. "Good… And Cilghal?"

"Yes?"

"Tread softly."

"Right… Well, children? Let's go."

Mara waited until they were safely out of the room before turning back to the trainees. "Like Solusar said, we have a big problem… Specifically, it's a ghost."

Tionne raised a hand. "According to the records I was able to find, it was a Sith Lord named Exar Kun. He was defeated by ancient Jedi here on Yavin IV."

"What is he still doing here?" Streen asked, throwing a hesitant and wary glance at Mara. "If… he's dead?"

"Does it matter?" Mara asked, and Streen shook his head. "Didn't think so… The point here is, this thing has got to go. Last night was two times it tried and failed, and the translucent thing is getting on my nerves."

"Two?" Dorsk 81 asked inquisitively. "What was the first?"

Mara shook her head at the sudden attention. "It was bad enough without having to talk about it all over again." She shuddered and sat up straighter. "So… ideas?"

They talked for an hour or so…

~*~*~*~

Ailee looked up from her datapad to find Cilghal coming in with the twins. "Good afternoon, Madame Ambassador."

"Miss Hallan," Cilghal greeted in reply. The twins were talking among themselves quietly and did not respond to her.

Ailee tilted her head and looked curiously at Cilghal. "Are you here to relieve me? Because, usually, it's Miss Jade."

"No. She's holding a meeting to discuss some things."

Ailee nodded and put her datapad in her pocket. "I'll watch them."

"I'm sorry?"

"You should go sit in. I will watch the kids."

Cilghal blinked at her for a moment, then bent down to look the twins in the eyes. "What do you two think? May I go and let Ailee watch you?"

Jaina glanced up for a moment, then looked straight at her. "He says to go... And I like Ailee!"

"Yes," Jacen told her. "Go sit in!"

Cilghal smiled. "All right." She stood back up and looked at Ailee, a serious expression in her eyes. "I am leaving them in your care, Miss Hallan. Don't make me regret it."

"I won't. Go..." Ailee motioned to the beir, where Dark Star was curled up next to Luke's body, watching them. "And really, you're leaving them in both mine and her care. Feel better now?"

Cilghal glanced over to where Dark Star, then chuckled. "Yes. Thank you."

"Any time... Go sit in on the meeting. We'll be fine." Cilghal nodded and left them alone in the grand audience chamber. Ailee stood up, stretched, then looked down at the twins. "So... have you two ever played tag?"

"Tag?" "What's that?"

Ailee grinned. "Well then. That is exactly what we are going to do..."

Luke was treated to the rare sight of a grown woman teaching the twins how to play tag. He glanced at Dark Star, who was looking up at him with golden eyes. "Looks like fun, doesn't it?"

Dark Star didn't answer him.

~*~*~*~*~

Mara entered the grand audience chamber to find Ailee sitting on the steps, the twins running around chasing each other, and Luke watching it all and appearing to be amused.

Ailee smiled as Mara approached the dais. "Hi... Taught the twins a new game."

"Is that why they're chasing each other?"

"Yes. Cute kids."

"Yes, they are... I'm relieving you."

"Um-hmm... want me to take them?"

"No."

"All right... was the meeting productive?"

"Yes."

Ailee nodded, studying her, then turned to leave. "Have a good watch, Miss Jade."

Jaina and Jacen stopped running around as Ailee left, then Jaina went up to Mara with a frown. "Why she call you Mith Jade?"

Mara blinked at the question. She hadn't expected anyone to ask that. "I think she does it out of respect, Jaina. Did you have fun?"

Jaina nodded. "Yes!"

"Good... Luke?"

"She taught them to play tag," Luke obligingly reported.

"So I noticed... Any appearances made by the thing we want to get rid of?"

Luke blinked a couple of times, then shook his head in the negative. "No... not since just after Terpfin arrived and it threatended me again."

Mara tilted her head and considered him carefully, glancing between him and his body and back again. "And you didn't think that was worth mentioning?"

"Anoth was more important."

"So is your life, Luke. We can't protect you if we don't know what is going on."

At her glare, Luke paused in thought, then nodded. "You're right. If it shows up again, I'll tell you first thing."

"Glad to hear it." Mara shook her head, then sat down on the steps and patted the top step on either side. "Come on, you two. Sit."

"What about Uncle Luke?" Jacen asked.

"Him, too, if he wants." Mara smiled up at the spectral man in question. "Well?"

Luke chuckled and moved to sit down next to her, but carefully so he didn't go through the steps. "Wonderful idea." Jaina climbed into Mara's lap, and Jacen sat on her other side.

"So... how about a story?" Mara asked brightly.

"About banthas?" Jaina wondered.

"No, Jaina, this is better than banthas."

Mara spent the next hour or so telling the twins a story about a girl lost in darkness who had been drawn back to the light by a prince in a shiny x-wing.

Luke listened, and if he hadn't already admitted he loved her to himself, he would have had to all over again.

~*~*~*~*~

Mara re-entered the grand audience chamber after handing the sleepy twins off to Cilghal for the night, and glared silently at the person she'd left on watch. Streen... she was still upset at him. "Go."

Streen blinked at the coldness of that one word and nodded. He left without a word.

"Mara..." Luke started to say, but she cut him off with a glare.

"Now is not the time to lecture."

"Right..."

~*~*~*~*~

In the darkness of the grand audience chamber, Mara had let herself doze off for a little while, only to be woken by that feather-light touch again. She blinked awake and looked straight at him. "What?"

"Something bad is on it's way."

"How do you..." Mara trailed off when she saw something big and retilian come through a window. It was big and had two heads, and felt... wrong. Silently, she stood up so fast that she went right through Luke, igniting her lightsaber on the way.

Luke watched, almost awed, as Mara sprang into action and jumped to the bottom of the steps. She sung around with her lightsaber when the creature got closer and chopped a head off, then danced away as it's claws tried to snag her.

At a sound, Luke turned and saw another one, coming in through another window. "Mara!"

Mara turned back to see the other one, her eyes widened, and then she turned back to deal with the first one.

Luke heard the sound of a saber ignite and turned to find Kam charging down the steps, lightsaber in hand.

Mara and Kam made short work of the critters, and then regrouped on the dias. Silently, they both had the same thought: "This thing has got to go."

~*~*~*~*~

"So you talked to whatever it is, and he sent... those things, and a sleeping student to attack you?"

"Yes."

Mara stared at him. "What did you do to him that he wants you dead?"

"If I knew that, I'd be... somewhat less translucent."

"Dark Star saved your life, by the way."

Luke blinked and looked toward the cat, who was hunting for lizards on the other side of the throne room. "She did?"

"Yes. This... thing, whatever it is, tried impersonating the emperor. On me... After which, Dark Star was rightfully spooked and Ailee kicked me out."

"Ailee?"

Mara shook her head. Of course he'd forget her name in all this. "You know... nice New Republic medic who taught the twins to play tag, somewhat scary, kind of obsessed with caf?" She glanced at her chrono and suddenly realized what time it was. "And... there she is..."

Luke turned to see a woman walking down the steps at the entrance, a cup of caf in one hand and the ever-present datapad in the other. "Oh. Her."

"Yes... her."

"I still think it's redundant for a medic to have stayed."

"It makes sense to me, Farmboy."

Ailee looked up from her datapad as she climbed the steps and frowned. "Who are you talking to, Miss Jade? Thin air?"

"Yes. Why, is that a problem?"

Ailee rolled her eyes and sat in the chair that Mara had so humbly vacated. "Hardly, just don't go overboard... and go get some sleep."

"He's right here, you know."

"Um-hmm... And responding like a duracrete wall, too."

"Hey!" Luke suddenly exclaimed, offended that she'd say such a thing. "I am not!"

Mara had to bite her cheek to keep from laughing.


	9. Chapter 9

The trainees and Mara sat in a circle in the middle of the grand audience chamber while Luke watched. This plan... actually made sense to him. It was inventive, at the very least.

Slowly, one by one, as they meditated together with their eyes closed, they began to glow a pale blue.

To him, Mara glowed brighter than the rest, and it seemed to draw him in until he just couldn't help himself. One moment, he was standing outside the circle, and the next... he was side by side with Mara in her mind.

[Luke?] she thought, suddenly realizing he was there, and almost seeming to blink in surprise.

[I'm here, Mara. I'm here,] he said soothingly, not wanting to break her concentration. [Let's all to this together, hmm?]

And then, as if each had just noticed his presence, the trainees acknowleged him, all seeming to nod in agreement.

As one, they joined in one purpose: to repel the darkness with the light.

As one, they joined together in agreement... the evil one had to leave.

Outside the circle, a deep shadow appeared, wanting to take advantage of the seeming vulnerability of the moment.

Exar Kun never stood a chance.

~*~*~*~

As reality slid back into place, Mara was greeted by the sound of someone coughing. Blinking in surprise at the sound, she quickly took stock of the trainees... no, it hadn't been them. As the sound came again, she turned to look up on to the raised stage... and couldn't help but stare in amazement.

There, on the bier with Dark Star at his side and Ailee watching him closely with wide eyes, was a coughing, breathing, slowly getting his color back... very awake Luke!

Wordlessly, Mara got up and ran to join them on the stage.

Luke looked up and smiled when their eyes met. "Hi." Talking sent him into another coughing fit.

"Is he allergic to pet dander?" Ailee wondered idly.

Mara shook her head. "Not that I know of."

"Good." Ailee stepped back and watched as the trainees joined them, letting it go on for a minute, and then rolled her eyes. "All right, you've seen him. He's up. Go to bed, the lot of you."

Kam turned and looked at her. "But..."

"Do you want me to make it a medical order?"

"Um... no."

"Then go. Big evil gone now. Briefing in the morning. Now, really, go get some rest." She glared at the assembled trainees, daring them to defy her.

Slowly, Kam nodded and he led everyone out.

Mara watched as the trainees filed out, then looked at Ailee. "Do you want me to go, too?"

"Nope. You get to stay." Ailee turned back to her patient. "Now then... how do you feel?"

Luke stared at her. "What?"

"Good, bad, or intermediate?"

"Oh... Not that bad, actually."

"Good enough to walk to the medical suite?"

"I guess..."

"Good. Let's go, then. I am so sick of this room, you have no idea."

Luke shrugged as he slowly stood up, wobbling a little on his feet. "I kinda like it." Mara caught his elbow to steady him, and he smiled at her.

"Um-hmm... you've been unconscious and dead to the world."

"I was not dead to the world."

Ailee stopped and stared at him, perplexed. "Then explain the whole coma thing to me, please. You were so."

"Heard your comment about the duracrete wall," Luke muttered.

Ailee blinked at him, shaken by that revelation. "How?"

"He was aware, if not a awake," Mara explained. "Remember? Dark Star was chasing lizards and I came back upset, and the trainees, and Leia, and the twins had been shaken up, too? What ever hit us from Carida's destruction, hit Luke, too, and shook him loose."

Ailee turned to stare at Mara, eyes wide once more. "And you didn't tell me that there was an invisible Jedi Master hanging about?"

"He was mostly following me around," Mara said with a grin as she held Luke's elbow firmly. "He was pacing a lot, you know."

Ailee glanced down at Dark Star, suddenly realizing... "Oh. I thought that was weird for you." Dark Star just looked up at her with unreadable golden eyes.

"Do we really have to go to medical," Luke suddenly asked, a somewhat whiny tone in his voice. "I'm fine." Then he coughed again, and they glared at him with raised eyebrows and he winced. "Right. Forget I said anything."

~*~*~*~

Mara stood with her arms crossed firmly while Ailee checked Luke out one thing at a time, careful not to miss anything in her exam, right down to breathing deeply in and out deeply while she listened with a stethescope.

"I don't see why this is necessary," Luke muttered.

Ailee paused and looked straight at him. "You don't?"

"I'm fine."

"You were laying there for over a week, Master Skywalker. Let me be the judge of how fine you are... and don't force me to do verbal sparring with you. Miss Jade over there kinda wore me out in that respect."

"I was not that bad," Mara told her.

"Yes, you were... and why'd you sleep in the x-wing, by the way?"

Luke blinked in surprise and looked at Mara. "You what?"

Mara shook her head, almost amused that he was looking at her that way. "It was comfortable... How'd you find out, anyway?"

Ailee chuckled. "Did you think star gazing was a one time thing? I saw you on my way outside."

"Ah."

"You slept in my x-wing?"

Mara sighed. "Luke, you'd been unconscious for five days and I'd just nearly been coerced into killing you." She shook her head at his sudden questioning expression. "I went to the one place that felt completely like you... It just happened that it was your x-wing... And Ailee?"

"Yes?"

"Is that why Brakiss didn't question it?"

"Pretty much... I saw you sleeping up there, told Solusar where you'd gone, and ordered him not to wake you." Ailee looked down at the medical kit for a moment, then up at Mara again and shrugged as she picked up a pen light. "I think he had a rotating guard on you all night long just to be on the safe side."

"Ah. That makes more sense."

"I'm confused," Luke said slowly.

Ailee laughed, then got him to look at her. "Follow the light for me? Thank you. Up. Down... Now look straight ahead and tell me how many fingers I'm holding up without actually looking at them."

"One, four, two... ten?"

"Good. Your peripheral vision is good and you don't have any sort of concussion."

Mara snorted in laughter. "Because he didn't say twenty?"

"No, because his eyes aren't dialated... I could have done it without making you laugh, you know... And Master Skywalker?"

"What?"

"You have lovely blue eyes."

Luke stared at her, not quite able to believe that she'd just said that. "Um..."

"But they sparkle more when you're not in an unexplained coma. Just wanted you to know that."

"Thank you?"

"Any time." Ailee picked her things up, then turned to Mara. "He's fine, but I think observation would do him some good for a while."

"Hey!"

"Hush, you," Mara told him. "She's right... what kind?"

"The kind where he stays out of trouble. Think you can manage that?"

"I can."

"Good... Don't kiss him too hard, now." And with that, Ailee left the room with a smirk.

Luke watched Ailee leave, and then turned to look at Mara. "How did you..."

"She takes some getting used to," Mara said as she moved to sit next to him. "I'm still upset at you, by the way."

"I realize that, Mara."

"Any other stupid ideas that I should know about that could either lead to you in a coma or someone in danger from an imperial raid?"

Luke sighed and shook his head. "No."

"Good, because I'm not certain I could go through that all over again." She waited for him to look at her again, then caught his chin with her hand. "I missed you, even when you were here but not here. More than you'll ever know."

"Mara..."

"Hush." She leaned forward and kissed him full on the lips. Luke blinked, and then leaned into it, savoring the moment and the feeling of her pressed against him. It had been too long, and the sensations made him dizzy.

When Mara pulled away, she smiled at his dazed expression. He was so cute, blinking at her with glazed eyes like that...

~*~*~*~

The briefing had gone well, and Luke was wandering around the Temple aimlessly. Eventually, he ended up on the roof. He was sitting up there for a good long while when Mara finally found him. "Hi."

Mara glanced at him as she sat down, and smiled at seeing Dark Star nestled comfortably in his lap. "We found you up here, you know."

"I know." Luke watched as the morning mist began to burn off and shook his head. "I don't think I feel comfortable here, Mara."

Mara frowned. "You don't?"

"No. I like Yavin IV, I like everything about it, but... it doesn't feel right. I just... don't know why it doesn't feel right."

Mara nodded slowly. "Any experience can change you. This is no different."

"When Leia gets here, I'll talk to her about finding a place that's closer to Coruscant."

"Is that what you want to do?"

"It is."

"All right, then." She put an arm around him, and together they watched the tree tops of the jungle.

~*~*~*~

Mara leaned against a bulk head as Ailee prepped her shuttle to leave, and couldn't help but feel a sort of kinship with her. "Be careful out there."

Ailee glanced back at her from the control panel. "I always try to be, Miss Jade. Medic's honor."

"Where are you going from here?"

"Home to Sacorria for a few days, then back to Coruscant to report in."

Mara glanced over, saw the datapad, and picked up out of curiosity. Reading the first couple lines of text, she shook her head and put it back where she'd found it. "How can you read that?"

"It interests me."

"But..."

Ailee turned and regarded her with an air of calmness one would usually associate with Luke. "I though you were an assassin. You know... before?"

Mara blinked at her for a moment, then looked at the datapad again. "It's not the same thing."

"Sure, it is. Just a bit different in the focus... A medic's job is to help a person heal, and to do that, one has to know how to fix what's wrong."

"That includes alternate uses of medications and leeches?"

Ailee chuckled and turned back to the control panel. "Sometimes."

Mara nodded and let the datapad stay where she'd left it. "You good to go?"

"Almost... I'm going back inside to..." Ailee trailed off as she saw someone approaching through one of the view ports. "Never mind. He's bringing it to me."

Mara frowned and turned to see Corran appear at the rear entrance of the shuttle, cup of caf in hand. "You just couldn't resist, could you?"

Corran handed the cup to Ailee, who took it with a smile. "I figured she'd stay longer than really was necessary professing her love of caf all over again."

Ailee rolled her eyes. "Gee, Halcyon. I didn't know my bad habit was that traumatic for you."

"It's not."

"Really?"

"You staying and worshiping the caf maker is traumatic... to the caf maker."

At that, Mara had to laugh. "All right, let's let her finish the shuttle prep in peace, shall we? Have a safe trip, Ailee."

Ailee nodded and took a sip as they exited the shuttle. Then she turned back to her instruments. She felt like she was leaving a family, somehow... even if she'd just met them three weeks before. Shaking the feelings away, she finished prepping the shuttle in peace.

~*~*~*~*~

Mara watched the shuttle take off and felt a sudden uneasiness... almost as if the Force were trying to tell her something, but she couldn't quite interpret it. She blinked, unsure of why she was suddenly uneasy.

"Mara?" Corran asked, noticing Mara's distraction.

"It's nothing." Mara watched as the shuttle lifted off and rose through the atmosphere to disappear. At least... she thought it had been nothing. Maybe... She shrugged it off and walked into the temple with Corran. Whatever it had been, it probably wasn't important...

~*~*~*~*~

As Kyp slowly walked down the Falcon's boarding ramp and out into Yavin IV's moist air, he couldn't help but want to wince as his feet touched solid ground and looked around.

There, standing at the edge of the landing field, was Master Skywalker... and Trader Jade. Master Skywalker had an air of calm about him, but... the woman next to him appeared to be upset and wasn't hiding it. She was glaring at him.

As Master Skywalker walked to join them, Trader Jade several steps behind, Kyp suddenly wanted to run into the jungle and hide there forever.

"Hey, Luke," Han said from behind him. "It's about time you quit napping."

Master Skywalker simply rolled his eyes and let out a soft chuckle. Then he focused on Kyp, eyes serious. "Welcome back."

Kyp just nodded wordlessly. He certainly didn't feel like he should be welcomed back after what he'd done...

~*~*~*~*~

Kyp couldn't help but feel ashamed as he stood on the roof of the temple and looked up at Yavin. It had been here that he'd... done something he shouldn't have. That he had done at Exar Kun's urging, but still done. Where he had given in and rendered his Master unconscious... He was so lost in thought that Trader Jade's voice made him startle and jump a little.

"I caught Luke up here three days ago... Figures you'd return to the scene of the crime, too, Durron."

Kyp didn't dare look back at her as he heard her footsteps come closer. "I couldn't stand the stares anymore."

"Thought it might be something like that... It was seductive and easy, wasn't it?"

Kyp blinked at the insight and finally looked at her... to find that she wasn't glaring at him as she had when he'd arrived. No... now, she was looking at him with what seemed to be compassion. Stern compassion? "What?"

"Exar Kun. It was so easy to just listen because he said what you wanted to hear... and he gave you a direction when it seemed like there wasn't one."

Kyp glanced down and saw the black cat at her feet... That was a really odd juxtaposition. She was the hardest person he'd ever met outside the mines, but here she was... talking to him with a cat at her side. "It was."

Trader Jade glanced down and followed his eye line. "Ah. She must not trust you enough to let me do this alone."

"I'm sorry?"

"She's been following Luke around ever since he woke up... I didn't expect her to follow me up here, but..." She stooped and patted Dark Star on the head. "I'm glad you're here, girl."

Kyp was about to say something, but was stalled when she stood back up and seemed to look right through him. "What?"

"I don't trust you."

Kyp sighed. "Right now, I don't really trust myself."

She nodded, digesting that information. "And, because I don't trust you, Durron, I am not leaving you here. As your test, which Luke agreed to by the way, you are coming with me to Kessel."

Kyp stared at her. "What? I don't want to go to Kessel. I hate Kessel."

She smirked. "All the better then, isn't it? It's not your choice, Durron. You're going. I am just giving you advanced warning. You have a day to prepare, and then Calrissian and I are leaving."

Kyp was dumbfounded as she turned on her heel and left him on the roof, feline closely following her as she went. He glanced back up at Yavin. "Kessel?" He really didn't want to go back there, no matter what the reason...

Three weeks later...

Luke was helping to set up a classroom in the new facility when he sensed someone welcome and familiar approaching. He looked up to see Mara... and Kyp, appearing to be very subdued. He glanced around the room, and Kam nodded and waved him off with a hand. Smiling, he met Mara half-way. "So how was Kessel?"

"Lots of action," Mara told him lightly. "We just happened to meet up with Antilles' invasion of the Maw that went awry."

Luke glanced at Kyp, who was looking at the floor... "So Kessel is safe for Lando's business opportunity?"

"So long as they don't disturb the giant crawly things." Mara turned and glanced at the very subdued Kyp, then looked at Luke. "I think the trip did him good, even if he's in shock still."

"Understandable... Trust him?"

"Yes and no." When Kyp finally looked up, she smiled at him. "More now that he's dealt with some of his deamons."

Kyp blinked at her in surprise. "I didn't deal with..."

"Yes, you did. A little at a time, Durron. That is all anyone can ask of you."

Luke had to hide a smile and pretend to be professional. Only Mara would phrase returning from the dark side like that...

 

Months Later...

 

Mara smiled when he answered the comm, happy to see him, even if he was so far way. "Hi."

"Hi, yourself, Mara."

"So how is my favorite farmboy?"

"I'm good... How is my favorite trader?"

"Are you asking about me?"

"I am."

Mara snorted at the honestly in his eyes. "Everything is good... I'm meeting Calrissian in two days. Should be interesting."

"More or less interesting than Kessel? I think Kyp is still in shock over that."

"Less interesting than that. Karrde had a lead and Calrissian found something... And good. That means he'll think twice before doing something we have to clean up again."

"Funny."

"Thought it was..." She smiled at him for a moment. "So are we still set for dinner when I get back week after next?"

Luke nodded. "Yes, Mara. We're still set for dinner."

Mara looked away from the screen with a frown, then turned back to him again. "I've got to go. See you soon, Luke."

Luke nodded again and watched the screen go blank. Then he turned and looked at the clothes that he'd draped on a chair the day after she'd left on the run. She'd left an extra set of clothes with him because they'd been spending so much time together, and sometimes she stayed the night.

Slowly, he stood up, crossed the room to the chair, and picked up the shirt. He looked at it for a moment, then smelled it. The shirt smelled like her.

Luke glanced out the window at the setting sun, and shook his head in thought. Though he had just talked to her, he missed her more and more every day.

Through the Force, he felt a wave of emotion wash through him and had to smile at the sudden, welcome intimacy. 'I miss you, too, love. I miss you, too...'

Two days later...

Luke felt like he was having a bad case of déjà vu as he stared at Lando. "What? When?"

"I don't know when, Luke," Lando said as he ran a hand through his short hair and shrugged. "We were supposed to meet to discuss something and she never showed up... That was five hours ago, and you know she likes to be prompt."

Luke nodded. "I understand, Lando."

Lando frowned. "Luke? We'll find her. Don't worry." And with that, Lando signed off, leaving Luke to stare at a blank screen.

Slowly, he turned and looked at the feline who was sleeping on his couch. Mara's companion. Don't worry? Too late, he already was. Standing up, he moved to sit beside Dark Star and just looked at her for a moment.

At the sudden movement, Dark Star stirred and looked up at him, that oh-so-cat-like curiosity in her golden eyes. Luke put a hand on her head and she leaned into it, and suddenly, he was petting her and she was in his lap, purring.

A few minutes went by, and then a sudden jolt of pain hit him and he buckled. "Opph!"

Luke blinked and had to look around. For a moment, Mara's presence had been so clear. Almost as if she'd been in the room... "Mara?" No answer came, and the presence faded into a whisper. Luke looked down at Dark Star, who was again looking up at him. "She was here... I've got to go. Now." Dark Star jumped off his lap, and Luke stoop up. He didn't get more than five feet when there came a chime from the door buzzer.

Frowning, he went to answer it... and found Leia standing there with an expression of determination written plainly on her face. "Leia?"

"Lando commed us after he talked to you... You're going, aren't you?"

"Yes. Something is wrong and she wouldn't just miss a meeting like that..." Luke paused, not even wanting to voice what he'd felt. "And there was pain... from her."

Leia nodded slowly as he let her inside and he shut the door. "Then go." She looked down at Dark Star, sitting at his feet and looking up at them curiously. "Luke?"

"What?"

"I think you should leave Dark Star here."

Luke looked down, noting that she was seated at his feet again. "Why?"

"You don't know where you're going and for how long... and she's a cat. Cat's and your x-wing?"

Luke didn't understand for a minute, than nodded slowly. She had a point...

~*~*~*~

It had been a long time since he'd last looked at the stars. Really looked. They hadn't changed, but… sitting here in his x-wing staring out the cockpit window, it felt like they had. Or maybe he had, and hadn't thought to look in too long.

Taking a bite of his ration bar, he tried to focus on the sensations that were still coming from somewhere out there. Maybe if he looked long enough, he'd find his way to where those were coming from. Maybe.

The faraway stars looked like little points of light. As if that's all they were, and nothing more. As if there were no planets surrounding them and no life to speak of.

Sitting here, he felt more alone than he'd ever been. Then the prickling sensation came again, and he frowned. Somewhere out there, around one of those points of light, was the person he sought to find. Somewhere out there, even if he wasn't sure where, exactly.

He could feel her, every so often, and it made him even more determined. A twitter from behind made him blink, and he sighed again. "We're going, Artoo."

Luke closed his eyes and tried to focus again, and thought he heard a word. Opening his eyes and looking down at the navicomp, he saw that his hands had set a course to somewhere he'd never been before. "Huh... That's different."

Checking it again, he decided to trust in the Force. He pulled back the lever, and the x-wing vanished into hyperspace.

~*~*~*~

This was the forth one he'd been to in this system, and the smell hit him as soon as he set foot inside the threshold. His guide paid him no mind as he fought the urge to gag at the foul and cloying odor, just turned and looked at him knowingly when he didn't move for a moment too long.

Luke willed himself to take a step forward, and then froze again at the sound of a shriek. That had been a woman's voice, judging from the pitch.

The guide who had brought him here from the tavern sighed and turned, shaking his head.

~*~*~*~

The woman heard a noise coming from the main room and blinked at the familiarity of it. She knew what that low buzzing sound was… That sound meant one thing: Help! Help was here!

With a grunt borne out of months of being other than herself, she pushed the man on top of her away. But those same months of inactivity left her slow and weak, and she wasn't able to move fast enough to avoid the blade as it flashed out, stabbing her multiple times.

Then he spit on her and got up. He barely made it to the door before what looked like a reflected blaster bolt hit him and he went down.

Gritting her teeth, she tried to get up, to move. To do anything other than lay there on the floor and bleed. Then the pain hit her and she couldn't help but flop back down, landing flat on her back with a groan.

"Hey, don't try to move."

She knew that voice. Looking up, she smiled as she saw familiar blue eyes. Scared, familiar blue eyes. "Sleeping prince."

He blinked down at her, appearing to be more shocked than she'd ever seen anyone. "Ailee?"

She tried to raise her head, but couldn't. "There's… needle in haystack." That was all she was able to say before everything went black.

Luke stared down as her eyes closed, unable to fathom what she'd tried to say. A needle in what haystack? There were no haystacks here. Reaching down, he felt her neck for a pulse and was unable to find one.

Standing up, he scanned the perimeter of the room. In one corner was a bulky bundle. Shaking his head, he slowly opened himself to the Force, and listened… and felt a welcome tingle. He turned and went to stand at the entry of the room, trying to figure out where it was coming from. It was here in this compound, he knew that much. That door, right there, across the room… that had to be it.

Movement out of the corner of his eye, and he saw two of the pirates moving to get up. "Stay where you are." They looked at him, then obediently sat back down.

With a presented calm he did not feel, he walked to the door and flung it open with the Force… and there she was, sitting in a corner. Almost tripping over himself, he went to her and wrapped her in his arms as she raised her head and blinked. "Shh… I'm here, Mara. I'm here."

"Never leave me," she whispered in a voice that was harsh from disuse. "Never leave me."

"I never will," he whispered back. "Not ever."

"I love you," she whispered.

"I love you, too, Mara," he whispered. "Come on, let's get out of here." He covered her in a blanket and picked her up in his strong arms. Taking note of the darkness, he positioned her in his arms so her eyes would be protected. "It's pretty bright out there, so close your eyes." That wasn't the only reason, but it sounded believable enough…

"Okay," came the faint whisper. "Are we going home?"

"Yes, Mara, we are."

"I love you, Farmboy. Stay with me?"

"Ever and always, Mara. Ever and always."

Mara snuggled into his arms, finally, after so long in the pain-filled darkness, feeling safe in the arms of the man she loved. They were together, no matter what…


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: It's hard to believe, but this is where the back story originally started, here with Mara in the darkness on Valentines Day of '06. (And this is still the reason I have yet to wright another V-Day story... ow.)

~*~*~*~

It was cold in the dark, dank prison cell.

The woman sat there, shivering with cold and fear, terrified of what would happen when the door opened once more.

She couldn't be certain of how long she'd been here; as there was no way to mark the passage of time, but for her captors dragging her out into the light and the infliction of pain. Days, weeks, months? Or was it years? She did not know.

Even her senses could not tell her that, as they were blinded.

The woman lifted her head off her knees when she heard a loud commotion from outside. What was that? She wondered.

And then a familiar low buzzing sound was heard, and her eyes widened in the darkness. Could it be?

Not daring to hope, she rested her head back on her knees and listened to the ruckus.

The commotion was over as quickly as it began, with a yell and a loud thud. She heard voices from outside the door, but couldn't make out the words.

Out of long practice, she crawled to a corner and waited for the door to open, her face hidden behind her scraggly hair.

She heard the door open, and all at once her senses opened. Her head came up with the rush of sensation, and someone familiar that she didn't dare to hope to see.

Arms enfolded her, and soft words of comfort were whispered in her ear, and she melted into the embrace.

"Never leave me," she whispered in a voice that was harsh from disuse. "Never leave me."

"I never will," he whispered back. "Not ever."

"I love you," she whispered.

"I love you, too, Mara," the man whispered. "Come on, let's get out of here." He covered her in a blanket and picked her up in his strong arms. Taking note of the darkness, he positioned her in his arms so her eyes would be protected. "It's pretty bright out there, so close your eyes."

"Okay," came the faint whisper. "Are we going home?"

"Yes, Mara, we are."

"I love you, Farmboy. Stay with me?"

"Ever and always, Mara. Ever and always."

Mara snuggled into his arms, finally, after so long in the pain-filled darkness, feeling safe in the arms of the man she loved.

~*~*~*~

As Luke sat in a chair in the waiting room outside the emergency department in a hospital on Sacorria, he couldn't help but stare at the floor. He didn't want to think about any of it, but could do nothing to stop himself, so he avoided prying eyes instead.

He hadn't known her that well, but to see her die like that was just… just… unbelievable. It made no sense. None at all…

A noise and a sudden sensation that seemed to roll through the Force made him look up and frown in confusion. What was that? Then the noise came again, and he stood up, knowing what it was. Mara. He walked to the admissions window and looked at the clerk. "Can you open the door and let me in? Something's happening back there."

The clerk stared at him, then jumped when the noise came again. Turning, the clerk looked back through the curtain, and then spun back around, nodded once, and hit the button. "Go right in."

Luke didn't even spare the clerk another glance. Back to the emergency ward he went, following the shouts to the source, and had to stop and stare when he saw what the problem was. Things were flying around and, at times, hitting the staff as they dove for cover trying to get out of the way.

Luke couldn't help but stare in fascination. So that's what the noise was… Then he shook himself and waded into the mess. In the center of it, he found Mara, wide awake and vocalizing. Ducking so an instrument would miss him, he made it to her side. "Mara."

She blinked up at him with utter panic in her eyes. "Hurt."

"I know it does." He looked into her eyes, knowing that if he didn't get her to calm down, things were going to keep flying around the room. "Everything is all right now, Mara."

"No it isn't," she tried to argue. "Hurts."

Summoning the Force, he poured on the power into his words. "Sleep, Mara. Let me worry about it for now. Sleep."

Slowly, her eyes closed and soon she was asleep. The floating instruments dropped to the floor, and Luke took the command one step further into a healing trance. She'd sleep as long as no one said the wake up call: sand dune.

Taking a deep breath, Luke stood up and looked at the weary medics who were picking themselves up off the floor. "I should have realized that might happen. Sorry."

One of the medics shook his head. "Don't be. Could have happened to anyone… First time I've ever been attacked by my own instruments, though. She asleep now?"

Luke nodded. "Yes… I'm not leaving."

"Not asking you to, Master Skywalker."

~*~*~*~

Luke was sitting next to Mara's bed in the Sacorrian hospital, holding her hand while he waited for the doctor to return. That place… he shuddered to think of it. The things those people had done…

He looked up as someone entered the room, his hand instinctively going for his lightsaber. He had it out and ignited before he even had time to blink. The person standing in the doorway just stared at him with hands raised in surrender. "Woah! I come in peace!"

Luke looked at the person, then at his lightsaber, then at the person again, suddenly realizing what had just happened. Hesitating for only a moment, he deactivated it. "Sorry."

The man chuckled. "Don't be. Could have happened to anyone… Can I come in?" When Luke nodded, the man entered the room and went to Mara's bedside to look down at her thoughtfully for a long silent minute. Then he nodded to himself and looked at Luke. "Thank you for bringing Ailee home, Master Skywalker."

Luke couldn't help but stare at him. "I'm sorry?"

The man held out a hand, which Luke slowly took hold of. "Drev Hallan. Ailee was my sister."

At that, Luke looked at him with new eyes. Her brother? "I just wish I could have gotten her out of there, too."

"You did."

"Not alive."

Drev frowned. "No, but you found her and brought her home, and that is what matters." He glanced down at Mara again. "She had the best time on Yavin IV, by the way. When she came home for a few days after that, she went on and on about it, as if she'd never had that much fun in her life."

"Wasn't that much fun," Luke muttered.

"Ailee found it both relaxing and weird. For her, that was fun… and something about a ghost."

Luke snorted, trying not to outright laugh at the reminder. "Is there anything I can do for you, Mr. Hallan?"

Drev nodded. "Take care of your lady. Ailee liked her."

"Oh, am I interrupting something?" the medic asked as he stopped in the doorway. "I can come back…"

Drev shook his head. "No, I was just leaving." He nodded to Luke once with a small smile that seemed pained, and left them to it.

The medic stepped aside to allow him to leave, and then walked up to Luke and handed him a hard copy folder. "Here. These are for you to give to the medical center on Coruscant when you arrive."

"Sir?"

"I'm releasing her into your care. A nurse will be by shortly to help you to move her." The medic couldn't help but notice as he turned to leave that the Jedi Master appeared more haggard than he'd ever seen anyone. What had it been like out there?

~*~*~*~

When the nurse arrived with the hover gurney, Luke was sitting in the chair again and holding Mara's hand. The nurse paused to watch him, and the slump of his shoulders made her want to cringe. Carefully, she parked the gurney, and then went and bent down to look at him. When he looked at her, she smiled. "Hi… pardon me for asking this, but… when was the last time you slept? We've been focusing on her, but I don't recall anyone asking about you."

Luke blinked at her, not understanding at first. "Um… long enough."

"That's what I thought." She looked at him for a long moment, then at the woman asleep on the bed, shaking her head slightly. She hoped someone, someday, would move mountains for her like that if she needed it. "All right… think you can help me get her on to the hover gurney?"

Luke nodded. "I can do that."

The nurse smiled and went to move the gurney closer. She'd just parked it again when she looked up to see that the patient was hovering in midair. Blinking, she looked over at the man to find him concentrating, and realized that he was doing that. Silently, she stepped back, and let him lower her onto the gurney gently. Then the nurse covered her with blankets and secured her to the hover gurney. "You didn't have to do that."

"It was faster and easier."

The nurse decided that arguing wasn't in her best interest and let it go as she escorted the two of them out. Some things were better left unsaid.

~*~*~*~

Luke made sure the ship was safely in hyperspace and then he sat back and just watched the molted sky outside the cockpit windows for a long while. It was all so much… so much in so short a time. So much, and he felt like he hadn't done enough. Not nearly enough.

How could her brother not be upset at him for letting Ailee die? He felt like it was all his fault. If he'd just gotten there sooner…

Getting up, he went tot eh cabin where Mara was sleeping, and pulled up a chair to sit and watch her. Even asleep and more worn out than he'd ever seen her, she was beautiful. She was here… and here he was, kicking himself mentally for things he could not change. Some things were just that way. He knew that, but knowing it and believing it were two different things.

Slowly, he took hold of her hand and just held it. He wasn't going to leave her if he didn't need to. Not ever. No.

He stayed there until the computer beeped, signaling it was nearly time to drop out of hyperspace. Sighing, Luke leaned forward and kissed her gently. "I'll be back, Mara. Love you."

Mara slept on.

~*~*~*~*~

Luke felt like he was having the world's worst case of déjà vu as he sat in the waiting room of the hospital on Coruscant and stared, once again at the floor. The medics had heard him out when he'd explained where he'd come from and why Mara was unconscious on a gurney, and then they'd dismissed him while they evaluated her, one of them thanking him for the folder that the Sacorrian doctor had given him.

So here he was, once again in a waiting room sitting in an uncomfortable chair, and staring at the floor, wishing it would open up and swallow him whole. A hand landed on his shoulder as someone sat down beside him, making him jump a bit. "Woah, kid. It's just me."

Luke turned to find Han sitting there, looking at him with a concerned frown. "Hi… How did you know I was here?"

Han shook his head. "I didn't. Leia commed me, saying she felt you enter the system… So how is she?" When Luke hesitated in answering, Han's frown deepened. "Oh… And you? You look like you went twelve rounds with a Gundark, kid."

Luke wanted to smile at that reminder, but he just didn't have in him. "Feels that way, too."

Han was about to say more when someone opened the door and called Luke's name. When Luke just sat there, Han gave him a nudge. "Go on."

Luke blinked at him for a second, then nodded and stood up. He glanced down at Han for a moment, then went and disappeared through the door without a word.

Han was left to frown… something had happened out there, all right, and from Luke's behavior, it wasn't good. As he stood up, Han made a decision… he and Leia were going to be there for both of them. They were going to need it.

~*~*~*~

The nurse found it odd that the woman was sleeping so deeply, even through an examination… but she could understand it. The poor dear looked exhausted, and she hadn't moved at all while being examined. Not one twitch, not one moan, nothing.

"I don't like this," the nurse finally said to the medic who was reading through a hard copy folder. "It's like she's in a coma, she's so still."

The medic looked up from the chart he was reviewing and nodded. "I noticed that, too. The chart says that she gave them a scare, and then Master Skywalker did something to calm her down, and it looked like a deep sleep."

"Gave them a scare?"

"With telekinesis."

"Oh." With a sigh, the medic stood up and moved to leave. "Where are you going?"

"To get her a room." He paused and looked at the nurse for a moment, then seemed to nod to himself. "You'll do."

"For what?"

"I'm assigning you to her case, Mrs. Dellano."

The nurse watched him leave, then shook her head as she looked down at the sleeping woman again. "You know… between you and me, I hope he falls down a sand dune next month on his vacation."

Suddenly, the woman sat up with a gasp. "Hurts!"

Utterly startled, the nurse back peddled away from the bed as the woman looked around the room, clearly disoriented. "What in the seven hells?"

The woman slowly focused on her, and frowned. "Or it did…" Then the exhaustion hit her again and she laid back down, eyes closed, as if she hadn't just woken up out of a sound sleep.

The nurse just stood there and blinked. Hadn't she been in a coma or something?

~*~*~*~

With a sigh, Luke poked his head in the curtain that had made that part of the room separate, and saw the nurse standing there in a state of shock. He frowned and looked at Mara… no. She was still asleep. "What happened?"

"I'd like to know that myself," the nurse muttered. "She suddenly woke up, said something hurt, and passed out again."

"This may sound odd, but did you say anything right before that happened?" Luke went over to the bed and studied Mara with his senses. From what he could tell, she was no longer in the healing trance.

He could feel the nurse staring at his back. "What does that have to do with anything?"

"The wake up phrase was 'sand dune.'"

The nurse joined him at the bedside and reached down to take her pulse… it was stronger now. Good. "Yes. The medic who was in here is going on vacation next month and loves beaches… sorry about that."

Luke had to repress a snort in laughter at that explanation. "Don't be."

"Wake up phrase?" the nurse prompted.

Luke glanced at the nurse and saw an interested curiosity. "I had to make her sleep on Sacorria after she lashed out and attacked the medical personelle with their own instruments because, as she said to you, it hurt."

The nurse released the wrist she'd been taking a pulse on and checked Mara's eyes. They were more reactive to light now than they had been. "Yes, she did." Satisfied, the nurse stood up and turned her full attention to him. She'd seen him on newscasts here and there, and there were obvious differences. He looked like he hadn't had a chance to shave, or even thought about it in a while, and the way he stood… and, maybe it was her imagination, but he seemed thinner than he should have been. "Master Skywalker?"

"Luke," he corrected automatically.

"Luke, then… What happened? To her, I mean." Not that she didn't have a pretty good idea as it was…

"I don't entirely know."

The nurse blinked at his sudden change in voice tone and demeanor, then looked down at Mara again. That explained some things…

~*~*~*~*~

Luke sat in the hospital room where they'd moved Mara to and listened to the steady beep of the heart monitor as he watched her sleep. The medic who had admitted her kept coming in every so often and checking on them, talking to him in hushed tones, and leaving again. It was starting to become a sort of ritual and he could practically keep time by it. Not that he'd been keeping time on anything, but it felt that way.

She hadn't woken up again since the nurse in the admitting ward had woken her by mistake, but he could tell that she would… sooner or later. It was only a matter of when, now.

He blinked when she turned her head and let out a soft moan. "Mara?"

Slowly, her head turned toward the sound of his voice and she opened her eyes to meet his. A full ten seconds went by, and then recognition swam across her face. "Luke?" It was whispered, her voice still harsh from disuse, but there all the same and was music to his ears.

Luke leaned in closer. "Yes, Mara. Luke. I'm here."

"Good." She slowly reached up and cupped his cheek with her hand. "Wanted you. You came."

Luke took her hand in his and held it. "Wanted you too, Mara."

"Are we safe?"

"Yes, we are."

Hesitant though it was, she smiled at him. "Good."

The sound of someone clearing their throat made Luke look away from her, and he saw the medic standing in the doorway, smiling as he watched them. Luke nodded slowly, then returned his attention to Mara. "I'll be back, Mara. I think that medic over there wants to ask you some questions."

As he started to get up, an expression of panic crossed Mara's face. "Don't leave."

Luke smiled at her and sat back down. He felt that same way. "I'm not going anywhere. Just out into the hallway. I'll be a yell away if you need me."

Mara nodded slowly in acquiescence, and he left the room. Then she frowned. That smile hadn't really reached his eyes…

~*~*~*~

He waited out in the hall of the busy medical center while the medics checked her over. He hadn't wanted to leave her, but the medics had been adamant that he wait.

She'd been so... broken when they'd found her. Hurt. Scared.

He shook his head in resignation. Thinking about it wouldn't solve anything and would only serve to make him angry. Anger wouldn't help her right now.

The facts were that she'd gone missing on a supply run, the only evidence to even tie her to being in that place at that time being her lightsaber, and he'd spent months searching for her. Following every lead, every whisper, every hint. He'd known she wasn't dead. He could feel it.

He was shaken out of his thoughtful repose by the door opening and a green-garbed medic coming out. "How is she?"

The medic looked at him tiredly for a moment. "Are you family?"

"Yes. How is she?"

"Ms. Jade is... will be fine when she recovers." The medic looked hesitant to say more, but continued. "It's fortunate you found her when you did, Master Skywalker."

"Can I see her?"

The medic nodded. "Ten minutes. Don't stress her. She didn't have an easy time of it."

He nodded, and entered the room, closing the door behind himself. He saw the woman lying on the bed and took a deep calming breath.

A rasping laugh sounded from the bed, and she opened her green eyes to look at him. "You don't have to be perfectly calm, Farmboy."

He smiled as he sat down beside her on the edge of the bed. "The medic seems to think you're made of glass. He doesn't know you very well, hmm?"

She rolled her eyes tiredly. "Not well at all. Stay with me?"

"Always."

She grabbed his hand tightly. "I love you, Luke. You know that, right?"

He nodded. "And I love you, too, Mara." He bent down and kissed her on the lips. When they parted, her smile lit up the room. He pulled a small box out of his pocket and opened it for her to see. "I had originally planned to do this some other way, but that doesn't matter now... Mara, will you marry me?"

She stared at him for a long moment before regaining her composure. "Yes. Yes, I will marry you."

They sealed it with another kiss.

He felt her wince at the kiss and broke it to look at her. "Mara?"

She looked away from him, unable to meet his eyes. "I can't."

"Can't what?"

"I just can't, Luke."

Luke stared at her, cunfused. "What do you mean? Can't what?"

She sighed and tried to meet his gaze, then looked away again. "Can't. It's too hard... Hold me?"

He gently pulled her into his arms, slowly realizing that they were going too fast. "Of course, love."

"All those months, I couldn't help but think... is anyone out there? Do they know I need them?" She cried into his shoulder, unable to hold back the tears. "I needed you and you came."

Slowly, he rocked her back and forth. "Shh. It's all right. You're safe now, Mara."

"For always?"

The brokeness in her voice tore at his heart. "For always, love. For always."

A few minutes later, the medic came back, saw them sitting there, and decided to let him stay a while longer.


	11. Chapter 11

Luke spent the night in her hospital room watching over her while she slept. Every so often, she'd toss and turn and he'd lay a hand on her arm, and she'd settle down again.

He was dozing when she sat straight up and screamed. "No!"

Luke blinked awake and stared at her as she tried to make herself small and unseen in the bed. "Mara?"

"No! No! Don't come near me! No!" She hid her face with her hands, and wimpered at some unknown assailent. "Leave me alone!"

Luke slowly stoop up and moved as far away as he could without leaving the room. He tried to calm her through the Force, but she didn't seem to respond. "No one is going to hurt you, Mara. You're safe now."

Her posture was tight, and her eyes were filled with a blank fear as she raised her head to look at him, and then hid again. "Leave me alone! Why are you hurting me?!?!"

Luke felt someone approaching from out in the hall way and decided that it would be better to head them off rather than to startle her more. He quickly exited the room to find a nurse about to open the door. "I wouldn't go in there. She's... I don't know."

The nurse considered him for a moment, then peeked in and saw the woman on the bed and the state she was in. "When did she start doing that?"

"A few minutes ago, right out of a sound sleep."

The nurse glanced back at him. "Want me to try to calm her down?"

Luke nodded. "I think she's still asleep. Her eyes had that glossy look to them... and she kept saying that she wanted whoever it was to leave her alone, that they were hurting her."

"Hmm..." The nurse slowly entered the room and beckoned him to follow her. "Stay against the wall, sir. She'll need you when she wakes back up."

Luke stood against the wall again, watching as the nurse slowly approached Mara and sat down on the end of the bed from her.

The nurse carefully reached over and put a gentle hand on her shoulder. "Hush, child. You're safe here."

"No I'm not, I..." Mara blinked as she raised her head to look at the gentle nurse, her eyes clear. "I... where am I?"

The nurse smiled comfortingly at her. "A medical center." She beckoned Luke over to the bed. "It's safe now."

Mara grabbed Luke's hand when he was close enough. "It'll never be safe again."

"True." The nurse smiled at the way she clung to the man. "Some days will be better than others, and it takes time. Safe is something you are going to have to build for yourself all over again." She stood up, nodded to them both, and left the room.

Luke brought the chair closer to the bed and sat back down. She held his hand for the remainder of the evening, even after she fell back to sleep.

~*~*~*~

Mara awoke to find Luke dozing in the chair next to her bed and smiled. He's here, she thought. She was watching him for a few moments before he roused himself to wakefulness and noticed her looking at him. "Hi."

Luke smiled and leaned toward her. "Hi yourself... you gave me a scare last night, Mara."

She looked away. "Not right now, Luke."

"Yes, now. Tell me." After a moment, he added: "Please?"

"I can't."

"Can't or won't?" The tenderness in his voice got her attention and she looked back at him.

"Both," she said, and looked away again. "It hurts too much to talk about."

"Then let me bear the pain with you." He squeezed her hand, emphasizing his point. "I want to know. Let me in, Mara."

She said nothing as she sat up and looked him straight in the eye, considering. Then she nodded in defeat. "They... there was pain."

"All right. Bad?"

Mara nodded. "Bad. Over and over again, without end at times. The only time it felt safe was when I was alone in that room."

Luke considered her for a moment, and then kissed her hand. "I love you, Mara. Thank you for telling me... are you hungry?"

Mara stopped for a moment and stared at him. "How can you think of food right now?"

"I'm changing the subject," he said frankly. "Well?"

"Starved," she admitted, with a small chuckle. That was her farmboy, all right.

~*~*~*~

Mara stared incredulously at the lime jello in front of her. "But... this isn't a meal. It's a snack!"

"Sure it's a meal."

"No it isn't," Mara said adamantly. She pushed it away. "I want something else."

"Mara, the nurses aren't going to give you something else, you know." He pushed it back toward her. "Just try it?"

"But I don't like jello." She dared him with her green eyes to challenge her.

He did. "One bite. If you don't like it, I'll go get some crackers from the cafeteria for you."

She fiddled with the IV that was taped to her left hand for a moment before acquiescing. Mara hesitantly ate some of the jello. "Hey... this isn't that bad." She felt something that felt like annoyance and grinned at her fiancé. "What was that?"

"You're annoying at times," he admitted truthfully.

"Well... so are you." She smiled playfully at him.

Luke rolled his eyes. "Eat your jello, Mara."

She did. In between bites, she looked sideways at him. "When was the last time you ate, anyway?"

"Last night. Ration bar." He pulled a ration bar out of his pocket and unwrapped it. "Glad you reminded me. I'm hungry."

She set her spoon down and stared at him. "Luke!"

"What?"

"That's not a meal!"

"True, but it's better than nothing." Luke glanced at her and saw the dumbfounded ness that was plainly on her face. "It was this or leave you alone, and I didn't want to leave you, even for a moment. Besides, the ration bars aren't THAT bad."

"Sure they're not." Mara ate some more jello and studied him. He looked more haggard than she'd ever seen him, even when they'd been lost together on Myrkkr. Even though his expression appeared relaxed, his body language did not. And he'd positioned himself between her and the door, one hand always near his light saber. It made her wonder. "Are you all right?"

"Yes. Why?"

"You seem about ready to launch an offensive on the next nurse who enters the room," she said frankly.

Luke blinked at her, surprised. "Huh?"

"Well, you do."

"I am not preparing to launch an offensive on anyone who opens that door." His posture said otherwise.

"If you say so."

Luke stared at her, taking in the sheer ridiculousness of the conversation, and for the first time in months, laughed outright.

A second or two later, having finished her jello, Mara joined him in laughing.

Slowly, a little at a time, the emotional wounds inflicted on both were healing. Slowly.

~*~*~*~

Mara sighed as she sat at the window in her hospital room, looking out at the busy city traffic. She'd sent Luke to the cafeteria to actually eat something, assuring him that she'd be fine if he left for a little while.

"Can I come in?" a feminine voice asked from the doorway, tentatively.

Mara glanced toward the door and smiled when she saw who was standing there. "Sure, Leia."

Leia came in and brought a chair over to the window. "Saw my brother down in the cafeteria… He was really worried about you, you know."

"Still is," Mara muttered thoughtfully.

They were silent for a minute as Mara continued to stare out the window. Finally, Leia put a comforting hand on Mara's shoulder. "Want to tell me about it?"

Mara shook her head. "Not really."

"That bad, hmm?"

"Don't you have a galaxy to preside over?"

Leia shook her head in the negative. "No meetings are being held this week. Annual recess."

"Oh. How are Han and the kids?"

"They're fine." Leia's eyes narrowed. "That's not going to work, Mara."

Mara winced. "I just don't want to talk about it, okay?"

"All right, then we won't." Leia leaned closer to her. "As long as you promise that you'll talk about it with someone else. Do you promise?"

Mara turned and looked her in the eye, and slowly nodded. "I promise."

"Good." They sat in silence for a little while, both looking out the window and watching the traffic patterns

"What I want to know how we ended up on Coruscant." Mara turned to look at her again, confusion evident. "Was it the closest place with a medical facility or something?"

"No." Leia waited for Mara to look at her in question, then shrugged. "Luke brought you here after stopping on Saccoria, to have you checked over, there."

"Huh? I don't remember that."

"You weren't really awake on the way back, Mara. He said you mostly slept."

"Oh." It was disorienting to find out that she'd missed three days of travel. Or something like that…

Her thoughts were interrupted by someone, a nurse, entering the room with a tray. "Lunch time."

"More jello?" Mara asked, hoping she would say no.

The nurse smiled. "Some." She set the tray down on an adjustable table and brought the table over to where Mara was. "I want you to eat all of this, now."

As the nurse took the cover off of the tray, Mara stared. There was indeed a dish of red jello, but there was also solid food, which she wasted no time in eating.

The nurse chuckled and looked at Leia. "I'll be back later to check on her."

Leia nodded and the nurse left. "Jello?"

"That's what breakfast was," Mara said between bites.

"Ah."

~*~*~*~

As Luke sat in the cafeteria, staring at his now-empty tray, all he could do was think about how he'd found Mara in that place. Alone in the dark, scared.

There had been strange equipment set up in the rooms that he'd seen, and grim, hard men laughing at each other's cruel jokes. An odor, foul and cloying, had permeated the place. He shuddered, even now, to think of it.

He wasn't completely certain what had gone on there, but…what ever it was, hadn't been good. Luke didn't blame her for not wanting to talk about it. Having seen just a mere fraction was enough to give him nightmares.

A hand on his shoulder startled him and he looked up to find Leia standing there with haunted eyes. "Leia?"

As Leia sat down, she took a deep breath to steady herself. "How was your meal?"

"Fine… are you all right?"

Leia nodded. "It took a while, but Mara finally opened up a little to me… She'll tell you when she's ready, I think."

Luke shivered involuntarily. "I already know… I walked in on something bad right before I found her."

Leia stared at him. "Huh? Bad how?"

"I traced her to that place, Leia. Through hints and minascule leads, and a hint of the force. It was laughable how faint the trail was at times. And all I knew was that she'd been in a certain place the week before she disappeared. Talon Karrde didn't know much more than that."

"So you… saw something?"

"I saw them kill a woman in cold blood." He shook his head, trying to make sense of it. "I was too late to save her, and then I watched them laugh about it." He went silent and stared at his empty tray.

Leia was silent for a moment, and then leaned against the table, worn out from everything she'd heard in the past hour or so. "And?"

"And what? There's nothing more to tell."

"Luke…"

He sighed and turned to look at her. "I… it scares me, that if I'd been an hour later, Mara would have been dead as well."

Leia didn't say a word as she took him firmly in her arms and hugged him. When they parted, Leia looked him full in the eyes. "But you weren't, Luke. You found her. She's safe and she needs you. Understand?"

Luke nodded. "Understood. Thanks. I needed that."

"You're welcome." Leia watched as he stood up, and then reached for his hand to get his attention. "You are both invited to dinner when she's released." He nodded, and then walked away. Leia watched him go, and then sighed.

~*~*~*~

Mara was sitting on the bed, reading a datapad, when Luke re-entered her room. "Hey there, stranger."

Luke sat down on the edge of the bed. "Hi… What are you reading?"

"My mail. Talon sends his love, and also that I'm on leave." She sent the datapad down and smiled at him. "Did you eat?"

Luke nodded. "Yes… Leia said you and her had a talk."

Mara leaned back against her pillow. "We did."

"Feel better?"

"Some." Mara looked at him mischievously. "Can I have all your ration bars?"

Luke chuckled. "The food can't be that bad, Mara."

"I don't want any more jello," she said defiantly.

"They're making sure you'll be able to eat solid food by starting you out slow… And I'm not giving you my ration bars."

She pouted at him. "Please?"

"No."

Mara pulled him close, smiled coyly, and kissed him. "Pretty please?"

"No."

She kissed him again, harder. "What about now?"

Luke pulled away. "You really are feeling better, aren't you? And no, I'm not giving you a ration bar."

"Any thing is better than hospital food… and yes. A little."

Luke smiled at her. "I'll make you a deal. Put up with the hospital food, and when you're released, Leia invited us over for dinner. Think you can hold out until then?"

Mara considered that for a moment or two, and then nodded. "I think I can. If not, I'll steal a ration bar when you're not looking."

"Funny."

"I thought it was." She picked up the datapad and read some more of her mail. "Hmm… when did you send that?"

"Before I got word that you disappeared. I know… it's long and not like me. I wrote it at 0200."

Mara read the letter in full before looking up at him, a smile on her face. "I love you, too. When do you think we should break the news?"

"At dinner after you're released?"

"Works for me."

They sat there, enjoying each other's company for the rest of the afternoon.

~*~*~*~

Dinner, which had contained less jello and somewhat more solid food than lunch, had come and gone, and Mara was covertly trying to find the ration bars when the nurse, who had been on duty the night before, entered the room and laughed. "Okay, you two. Visiting hours are over. You, Master Skywalker, are going to have to go home."

"But I want him to stay," Mara said. She found a pocket and snagged a ration bar while he was distracted. She hid it quickly when he turned his attention back to her. "Why can't he stay?"

The nurse rolled her eyes and she came over, put a blood pressure cuff on Mara's arm, and proceeded to take vitals. "Rules are rules, Ms. Jade. And we let him stay last night because you needed him to. Jedi and healing and all that." She stuck a thermometer in Mara's mouth before Mara could say anything about it, and raised an eyebrow at the Jedi Master. "Go home, get some sleep, a change of clothes, and come back in the morning. And that's an order."

Luke was about to protest, but the expression on her face forestalled it. "Yes, miss...?"

"Dellona, Iris Dellona." Iris checked the thermometer, wrote some numbers on a piece of flimsy, and then took a good look at her patient, who was doing her best to appear completely innocent. It had the opposite affect. "I have children, Ms. Jade. The innocent look never works with them, either." She held her hand out. "Give it to me."

Mara sighed and sheepishly handed the ration bar over.

Iris studied the item for a moment, then peered at her firmly. "Where did you get this?"

Luke stared at the bar, and then shook his head in amusement. "From me. Mara, I said I wasn't going to give you a ration bar and I meant it."

Iris removed the BP cuff from Mara's arm with precision, and then turned to study him. "And why do you have ration bars?"

Mara pulled the thermometer out of her mouth. "Because that's all he was eating for a while."

Iris put the ration bar in her pocket and held out a hand. "Give them to me. All of them."

"Why?"

"Because that's not healthy and there are better things to eat. Come on, now. I'll give them back when she's discharged." She watched as he searched his pockets and then handed bar after bar to her from all over his person. "Were you planning on not having anything to eat for a long time?"

"It's more that I didn't have anything to eat other than these. It was a long couple of months." The expression in his eyes as he handed the last ration bar that he could find to her said volumes.

Iris nodded slowly. "I understand." She moved to leave the room, taking both the ration bars and her equipment with her. "You get five minutes."

Alone, the two of them looked at one another. Finally, Mara spoke. "Come here." Wordlessly, Luke leaned into her embrace, words failing him. "I love you, farmboy. I love you for searching tirelessly for me, and for finding me, and for not taking the time to eat a good meal on one too many occasions." Luke said nothing as she held him, finding solace in her embrace.

They stayed like that until Iris came back and stood wordlessly in the doorway a small smile on her face.

Mara pulled away slightly and gave him a kiss. "Go home, all right? I'm not going anywhere."

Luke kissed her back, stroked her cheek once, and got up to leave. "I'll be here in the morning."

"I know." She watched him go, and then smiled at Iris. "Thank you."

"Anytime," and Iris left her, alone to her thoughts.

~*~*~*~

Luke opened the door to his apartment, picked up the cat carrier, and let himself inside. After he'd been told to leave for the night by Iris, he had gone to pick up Dark Star from the board and care facility.

Walking into the living room, he set the carrier down on the floor. A plaintive meow sounded from inside and Luke smiled slightly as he bent down and opened the carrier door. Dark Star shot out of the carrier, then looked up at him for a moment. Then, satisfied, she wandered away to explore the apartment.

Luke watched her go, shook his head slightly, and headed for the kitchen. He stopped in the doorway when he suddenly realized that he hadn't gone food shopping since he'd arrived on planet with Mara. Luke reached into a pocket for a ration bar before remembering that Iris had liberated him of them. All of them.

Luke was about to turn around and go back out when he noticed a folded piece of flimsy on the table that said in blocky letters: "Read Me." Frowning in curiosity, he picked it up and unfolded it. There, in Leia's hand writing, was a note that made him smile.

_Luke,_

_Han and I figured that you would have a lot on  
your mind, so we did your shopping for you.  
Eat… and then get some rest._

_-Leia_

Luke set the flimsy on the counter and went straight for the fridge.

~*~*~*~

Later, after he'd eaten, Luke was sitting on the couch and had settled for staring at the walls rather than the floor when Dark Star jumped up onto the couch and got into his lap. He looked down at her and their eyes met for a moment that seemed to stretch to minutes… then he pet her, and Dark Star leaned into his hand.

She began to purr and Luke smiled. It brought a sense of normality to an otherwise abnormal situation.

Luke leaned back and listened to the purring feline in his lap for a while. It was so soothing that he finally, after so long on edge, relaxed.

He slept till morning.


	12. Chapter 12

On a planet far away, a young woman awakens from a nightmare in the dead of night, a scream on her lips. Slowly, reality comes sliding back into place as she struggles to control her breathing. It is not the first time she has woken out of a sound sleep to find herself screaming.

She slides her feet over the edge and sits there for a moment, blinking in the darkness of her tent. She tries to clear her mind, but in the end, the task is impossible.

Images of a woman she has never seen before float through her minds eye, some where the woman is in pain, and others where she's alone in the dark, trembling and scared.

And then the tail end of the dream comes to her: warmth, love... despair fading away.

Unable to go back to sleep, the young woman gets out of bed. There is much to do, and nothing will be accomplished by laying on her cot in the darkness, waiting for sleep to come.

And so, on a planet far away, in the middle hours of the night, healing work of the day is begun.

~*~*~*~

Mara lay in the darkened hospital room, staring at the ceiling and trying to stay completely calm and nothing think about anything other than counting the ceiling tiles. She didn't want to think about it. Wouldn't.

Occasionally, an emotion or three would float up and linger there for a minute or two before fading. It made her stiff, her insides churning at the mere thought of losing control of herself.

After a while, Mara sighed and sat up, tired of feeling out of control. Tired of feeling like a victim. If it was going to come anyway, and she knew it would, sooner or later, then she was going to let it. The sooner the better.

Gritting her teeth, Mara Jade gave in and, for the first time in days, let the emotions swirl and roil around her. Terror. Despair. Anger. Hurt. Pain. Longing. Isolation.

Mara hugged her knees to anchor herself as emotion after emotion washed over her, and her eyes darted around the room in panic. Her breathing was harsh, she struggled to no avail to get it back under control. Tears formed in her eyes, and a dam of pent up frustration burst within.

And so, the hours passed in quiet turmoil.

Near dawn, it finally wound down to a quiet whisper and Mara, now calm, breathed a concerted sigh of relief. She was tired, yes, but it was a good tired. She'd faced the horror of her emotions and come out the other side relatively intact.

An hour later, after morning vitals were over, Mara lay there on the bed thinking about nothing when an image of a flower that she'd never seen before floated up from her subconscious. In reflex, she blinked it away and sat up. "What was that?"

A moment later, pain like a thousand knives hit her in the gut. She groaned and curled up into a ball, eyes shut tightly against it.

The pain lasted what seemed like an eternity before it subsided completely.

Slowly, Mara raised her head and blinked, then looked around at the hospital room in confusion. "Where is he? Where am I?"

As if her words had conjured him, Luke entered the room, saw her sitting there with wide, confused eyes, and stopped in his tracks. "Mara?"

"Where is he?" she repeated slowly, scratching her head in confusion.

"Who?"

"Palpatine."

Luke looked at her, finding it hard to understand how she could have blanked something like that. "Uh… he's been gone a while, Mara."

Mara stared at him in disbelief. "What?!" She shook her head as some things fell into place, and blinked again. "Luke?"

"Yes?" He slowly crossed the room to her, but didn't sit down just yet.

"That was very weird. How could I forget that he died?" She was really puzzled, confused at what had just happened.

Luke sat down, finally, in the chair next to the bed. "I have no idea… Are you all right?"

"I think so. Weird." She shrugged and then smiled at him, strange episode forgotten for the moment. "So. Did you have a good breakfast?"

Luke rolled his eyes. "Yes, Mara, I had a good breakfast. Slept some, too." He noticed the dark circles under her eyes. "And I'm guessing you didn't."

She looked away. "I feel better now, that's what's important."

"Uh-huh. And?"

"Wasn't the best night I've ever had," she deadpanned. "Or the worst, for that matter."

"Ah." He held her hand until breakfast came, knowing she didn't want to talk about it.

~*~*~*~

Mara was dozing when the doctor came around to see her. She woke up when Luke prodded her. "What?"

Luke motioned to the doctor. "Him."

Mara looked tiredly at the doctor and sighed. "Hi."

The doctor chuckled. "So happy to see me, hmm?" He looked down at the chart in his hand, then appraised her with his eyes, and took her pulse. "Since everything checks out and the blood work came back as negative for any diseases or infections... I'm releasing you."

"This soon?" Luke asked, clearly concerned.

"I don't see any reason to keep her another day." He paused and noticed the twinkle in Mara's eyes. "And you certainly seem recovered to me." The doctor noted something on the chart, and then handed a piece of flimsy to Luke. "This is a prescription for antibiotics, just in case."

Luke nodded. "Thank you. Is there anything special we should do?"

"Make sure she gets plenty of rest and eats regularly." With a nod to Mara, he left the room.

They looked at each other, and then broke into smiles.

"Finally," Mara muttered good-naturedly. "Getting out of here."

Luke laughed. "I'm with you on that." He was puzzled when Iris entered the room and handed him a plastic bag. "What is this?"

"Your ration bars." Iris smirked at him, and then went to remove Mara's IV. "Get plenty of rest, now, all right?"

Mara nodded. "Yes, ma'am."

Iris placed a piece of tape and a cotton ball over where the IV had been and then stepped away. She frowned as she thought of something. "Do you have any clothes to wear other than what you're wearing right now?"

Mara looked at Luke, who looked abashed that he hadn't thought of it, and then shook her head. "Not that I'm aware of."

"I'll be back in a while with your paper work and some scrubs, then. Can't have you leaving the medical center in a hospital gown, now can we?"

"Certainly not," Luke agreed as Iris left again. "Wish I'd thought of it."

"Why didn't you?"

"Wasn't the first thing on my mind."

"Ah. Makes sense." Mara stared at the bag in Luke's hands almost wistfully. "Luke?"

Luke looked at her, realized what he was holding, and set the bag down far away from Mara. "No. You're going to have real food today. Not these."

"But the idea is so tempting."

He raised an eyebrow playfully at her. "Ration bar or Leia's for dinner?"

Mara chuckled. "Well, since you put it THAT way... Leia's."

They would have talked some more, but Iris came back right then with a light blue set of scrubs and a clipboard, which she handed to Luke. She gave the scrubs to Mara. "You can return these later if you want."

Mara unfolded the scrub top and noticed the lettering on the chest pocket. "Coruscant Medical Center? Why are are these labeled?"

"So we know where we work," Iris dead panned. At Mara's expression of incredulity, Iris laughed. "They're property of the hospital. Of course they're labeled."

"Won't you get in trouble for giving them to me?"

Iris shook her head. "Not really." She watched as Mara slowly eased herself out of the bed, careful to keep the back of her hospital gown closed, and went to the refresher to change, limping slightly. "Hmmm..."

"What?" Luke asked, looking up from the clipboard.

"She's still sore and tight," Iris muttered before looking at him. "Finished with that?"

"Almost." He wrote one more thing down, and then handed the clipboard to Iris. "Here."

As Iris took the clipboard and studied the information, Mara came back out of the refresher, hospital gown in hand, and layed it on the bed. "How are you feeling, Mara?"

"Better than I was." Mara glanced at Luke, and saw him smiling at her. "What?"

"You look good in light blue," Luke blurted.

"Honestly," Iris said as she put the clipboard under her arm. "You two flirt worse than my teenage daughter does at a smashball game." She shook her head, amused. "I'll be back in a moment with a hoverchair."

Mara looked after her, puzzled. "A hoverchair? What for?"

"Tradition, and the fact that you're still limping, probably," Luke said helpfully. "Sit down, Mara. I can feel the joint pain from here."

"It's not that bad, really. Just need to get back in shape." The expression on her face, pained and a bit pale, said otherwise, but Luke wasn't going to argue with her.

Iris came back shortly thereafter with a hoverchair. "Okay. Ms. Jade, if you would sit in this-"

"I don't want it. Really don't." Mara tried to walk out the door, but Iris stopped her with a glare and pointed to the hoverchair.

"Sit. Now."

"But-"

Iris shook her head at the defiance. "No, Mara. Sit. Do it for him..." Here she pointed at Luke. "...but please sit in the chair. It's tradition and also a rule. Okay?"

Mara sat. "Doesn't mean I like it."

"No one does." Iris escorted them to the parking area, where Luke helped Mara into a speeder. "Take care, now."

~*~*~*~

On Dantooine, an old woman in a torn and tattered robe feels a nudging from the Force as she is slowly walking through the wreckage of a settlement and mumbling to herself under her breath.

She cocks her head to one side and listens to what the Force is telling her.

Family. Somewhere out there, a family member needs her. Or is going to. She must go find them.

The old woman nodds slowly to herself, and turns to go back the way she came to find a way off the planet.

As she walks, she knows one thing: she is going to Naboo.

~*~*~*~

After helping Mara into the speeder, Luke took off his coat and handed it to her. "It's cold out here. Take it." Mara took the coat from him and let him close the speeder door. Luke made sure the door was secure, and then turned to smile at Iris. "Thank you."

Iris nodded. "Have a good day."

"We will." Luke watched as Iris guided the hoverchair back inside and then got into the speeder. He sat there for a moment, looking at Mara. "Well? Your apartment or mine?"

"Mine," Mara said distantly, while looking out the window. At his silence, she glanced at him. "To get my clothes."

"Oh. You left some clothing at my apartment a while back," he offered. "We don't have to go there first."

Mara snorted. "Luke, don't argue with me on this, ok?"

"All right." He understood that she needed some control and decided to leave it at that.

A moment later, Mara turned to him in question. "Where is Dark Star? My apartment or yours? Or did you remember her when you went looking for me?"

Luke rolled his eyes as he put the speeder into gear and began driving. "She's at mine. I picked her up from the board and care facility last night."

"Bet she was happy to see you."

"Somewhat."

They sat in silence as he drove to them to her apartment building through the mid-morning traffic, navigating in and out of skylanes.

As soon as they were parked, Mara got out of the speeder, leaving the jacket on the seat as she did so.

Luke watched her go for a moment, snorted to him self, and got out to follow her.

Mara was folding clothes and putting them into a suitcase when Luke asked a question that gave her pause: "How bad is the pain?"

She calmly folded a green ship-suit, then turned to look at him. "Not too. It's better when I don't move, but…"

"Moving is what is going to help make it better?"

"Yeah." And she went back to packing her clothes in methodic fashion.

Luke came closer and stopped her, guided her over to her bed, and made her sit down. He sat down beside her. "I need to understand, so I am going to ask this of you… What did they do?"

Mara looked away, her expression unreadable and her eyes downcast, unable to look at him. "I… They… hurt me, Luke. Hurt me. Over and over again, like it was a game. And when they weren't, I was locked in a very dark room that was cold and smelled bad."

Luke absorbed that information for a very long moment, and then, very gently, raised her chin to look at him. There were tears in her eyes, and he wiped them away. "That doesn't make you, you, Mara. I love you, understand? I don't hate you. What they did… was unforgivable." And then he held her, showing her, letting her feel how much he cared and loved her.

When Mara could talk again, her voice shook with emotion. "I understand. Love you, too."

They sat there another minute, and then Luke let go of her and stood up. "Now, then… what else do you want packed?"

Mara laughed. "There's a light green dress in the closet. I want that."

"Yes, my lady." He bowed to her and then went to go look in her closet. "What about this red one?"

"If you want," Mara said teasingly. If he was going to do her packing, then she was going to make light of it. "And I want some shoes, too!"

"How many pairs?" Luke asked as he came out of the closet with three dresses and another ship-suit, this one a dark blue.

"Are you trying to move me in with you already?"

"If I said I wasn't, would you believe me?"

"Not really."

"Good, then I don't have to lie." Luke carefully laid her clothes on the bed next to her, threw a heart-warming smile her way. "How many pairs of shoes do you want?"

"Four."

Luke nodded and went back into the closet as Mara neatly put the dresses into the suitcase. He poked his head out a second or two later, a rather amused expression on his features. "You've only got four pairs."

Mara smiled back at him. "Makes things easier, doesn't it?"

"It does, at that." Luke disappeared again, and when he came out, he found that Mara had gotten up again and was taking things out of her dresser. "Mara?"

"I can't sit and do nothing. Makes me antsy." She turned around and put some undergarments into the suitcase. "Besides, we'll do done sooner."

Luke set the shoes on the bed and looked around. "Anything else you want?"

"Luke… stop it, all right? I'm not taking everything."

"Duly noted."

Mara put the last thing she was taking in the bag and stood up, stretching her back muscles as she did so. "Okay, that's everything. Go wait while I change, will ya?"

"But I like the scrubs," Luke protested playfully. "Sure you don't want to keep wearing them?"

"Very sure. Go." He left and she considered what he'd said about her current outfit, and smirked.

~*~*~*~

As Mara closed her suit case, Luke came up beside her and caught her attention with a hand on her forearm. "What?"

"I need to do this right." He waited until she was facing him, then got down on one knee. "Asking you when you're laying in a hospital bed was just... strange."

"No it wasn't." Mara stared as he pulled a now-familliar box out of his pocket and opened it. "Luke, you already..."

Luke silenced her with a pleading expression. "Let me?"

"All right."

"Mara, will you make me the happiest man in the universe and marry me?"

Mara nodded, tears starting to well up in her eyes. "Yes."

Luke took the ring out of the little box and slid it on to her finger. Then he got to his feet and they kissed. This time, she didn't flinch away from him.

When the kiss ended, Mara studied him. "Why again?"

"I didn't give you the ring the first time."

"Oh."

~*~*~*~

Mara and Luke had just entered his apartment when a dark streak came running toward them from the living area and brushed up against Mara's legs. Luke closed the front door and took Mara's suitcase to the living room while Mara herself picked up the black feline and scratched her behind the ears.

Mara laughed as the feline leaned into the scratching with closed eyes. "It's good to see you, too, Dark Star. I missed you." She followed Luke to the living room, where Luke had set the suitcase against a wall by the couch. "Well?"

"What?"

"I'm hungry. There anything to eat?"

Luke nodded. "Also took care of that yesterday when I realized that I didn't have anything here… What do you want?"

Mara followed him to the small kitchen. "Anything but jello."

"I can arrange that." Luke motioned to the small table. "Have a seat?"

Mara sat down, the Spukamas curling up in her lap. As she watched Luke go about making lunch, Mara reflected on how she'd met Dark Star the year before on a trading run to Corellia. The Spukamas had, actually, found HER and had doggedly followed her around everywhere she went.

Having been unable to lose the animal that had very obviously adopted her, Mara had taken her along on the next part of the run. Dark Star, so named because she was black with a little patch of white on her chest, had taken to space travel well and had been Mara's near-constant companion for the rest of the trading run.

When she'd returned to Coruscant, Dark Star had also bonded with Luke, and thereafter stayed with him when Mara was away on business.

"Why didn't you take her with you?" Mara asked, breaking the comfortable silence.

Luke turned around and placed a bowl of chicken noodle soup in front of Mara. "Leia convinced me not to. Something about felines and small fighters."

"Oh." Mara took the spoon that Luke handed to her and began to eat her soup. "This is much better than the jello."

Luke chuckled and noticed that Dark Star was staring up at him with her golden eyes, almost scowling at his nearness. He blinked, backed away, and went to dish some soup for himself. "Strange."

"Hmm?" Mara wondered, glancing toward him.

"I think… we have a chaperone." Luke sat down opposite her and began to eat his soup.

Mara looked at him funny and then glanced down at the animal on her lap. She was purring, yes, but there was also a feeling of protection emanating from her. "Seems like we do, indeed."

They ate in silence for a little while, Mara stroking the feline as she ate her soup.

Luke finished his soup, stood up, and went to go make a comm.

"Where are you going," Mara asked.

"To comm Leia about dinner."

"Oh… tell her I said hello?"

"Will do."

~*~*~*~

Luke was standing at the stove and stirring the soup as he waited for it to warm up. Should he have told Mara that Han and Leia had done the shopping? Saying he'd done it like that, and the questioning expression that she'd thrown at him when he'd said it…

"You're awfully quiet," Mara said from where she was sitting at the table behind him, with Dark Star on her lap.

"Just thinking, Mara."

"About?"

"You."

Seeing that for what it was, Mara set a protesting Dark Star on the floor and stood up gingerly. She crossed the small kitchen to join him at the stove, amused that Dark Star was trailing after her. "Just about me?"

"All about you… and Han and Leia did my shopping."

She nodded, the unspoken question answered. "I thought it was odd that you'd have thought of food when you weren't eating anything other than ration bars… and I'm glad they did."

"So am I. Especially since Iris took my ration bars away."

Mara had to suppress a snort at that. "That would hinder things a bit, wouldn't it?"

"Yes." He glanced at her with a small smile. "Go sit down."

"What if I want to stand here with you while you cook?"

Luke glanced down at Dark Star, seated at Mara's feet and glaring up at him, then shook his head and returned to the stirring of the soup. "That works, too."

Mara smiled and pulled a chair over to sit closer to him. "Here. I'm sitting down. Happy?" Luke nodded, and smiled again when Dark Star jumped into Mara's lap. Mara chuckled and petted Dark Star's head. "You're really clingy today, aren't you girl?"

"One can hardly blame her for that, Mara… Think she'll follow you around everywhere?"

Mara looked down at Dark Star thoughtfully as she leaned into a scratch behind the ears. "She just might…"

When the soup was warmed to Luke's satisfaction, he got some bowls out of a cupboard and turned to look at Mara. "You want to eat here or at the table?"

"Table." Mara picked Dark Star up, then stood up, and Luke moved her chair back over to the table. "I could have done that, Luke."

"I know, but… Let me?"

The pleading expression in his eyes made her sigh and nod. "All right…" She watched as he poured the soup into the two bowls and set them on the small table, and then they sat down together.

Mara took a spoonful and tasted it. The soup was good, and she nodded her thanks to him.

They had a nice and quiet meal.


	13. Chapter 13

Months ago…

 

Mara sighed as she piloted the ship down onto the landing pad. She didn't know why Lando had wanted to meet on Talus, of all places, but if Karrde said there was a lead for something, and Lando had an even bigger lead, then she'd go to Talus to talk about it.

Completing her shut-down procedures, Mara unbuckled her safety harness and got up, stretching as she did so.

Touching her belly, she smiled and turned to leave the cockpit. Checking her wrist chrono, she knew she was going to be early to the meeting and probably beat Lando there.

Walking down the boarding ramp, she turned and watched it as it raised to close.

A sudden prick of something small and sharp hit her in the neck, and then everything went black.

 

A month or two before that…

 

In hyperspace, a medic is bored and playing solitare with Sabacc cards. When the computer indicates that it's time to drop out of lightspeed to enter the Corellian system, she puts the cards away and turns to the control panel.

The ship drops out of hyperspace and she sees the double planet system of Talus and Tralus outside the view port. Piloting her ship toward Centerpoint Station, she frowns when the proximity alarm goes off. "This is not good."

Overrun and overwhelmed, she does not make it to her destination.

 

A week or so ago…

 

Luke had just gotten Mara situated in the bunk of the Jade's Fire when the Force hit him hard and he had to blink at the heaviness of the nearly unstoppable urge to go back inside that place. He sat back and shook his head, trying to clear it. The urge didn't fade or weaken, and he stood up before he realized what he was doing. It was her voice that stopped him.

"Luke?"

Luke looked down at her, realizing that he was going to have to do the last thing he wanted to do right now: leave her alone. Bending down, he locked eyes with her weary ones. "I won't be gone long, Mara. Promise."

She nodded. "Feel it, too… Go."

"You sure?"

"Go," she urged again with a yawn. Luke watched her for another moment, then squeezed her hand lightly and did what she'd given him permission to do… follow the will of the Force back into the compound.

~*~*~*~*~

Stepping inside, the smell hit him again. How could people live here for months or years on end and not notice the stench? Shaking his head, he steeled himself against the smell and looked around. The two men were still sitting where he'd left them, blinking as if… no. He hadn't used the Force to tell them to stay, had he?

Deciding to deal with that later, he went to the room where he'd found Ailee and stood there a moment. He needed to get her out of here. He knew that. Following the urging of the Force, Luke again saw that bundle in the corner.

What was that? He'd seen it earlier, but hadn't stopped to think of it in the thick of things… it hadn't seemed important. But now, with the Force urging him, he knew he couldn't leave here without it. He didn't know why, and right now he didn't need to.

Glancing down at the painful sight of Ailee's body, he sighed and turned to see if there was anything he could use to cover her in the outer room. He'd only had one blanket, and how he wished he had a Jedi robe or something. Not seeing anything besides two confused Binayre pirates, Luke turned back around and… that's when he noticed what looked like a bedroll leaned against one wall.

Frowning, Luke went to pick it up. Then the frown deepened… it hadn't been used. Why give someone a bedroll that they didn't use? That made no sense…

Unrolling the bedroll, Luke turned back to Ailee and covered her with that. Then, slowly and carefully, lifted her. He was halfway up when the Force nudged him again. "I'm listening, but…" Oh, right… he could do both.

Luke reached out and lifted the bundle up out of it's corner with telekinesis.

~*~*~*~*~

In the hold of the Jade's Fire, Luke set Ailee's body down carefully, then turned and brought the box closer to himself and set it down against a bulkhead. He'd worry about that later.

Turning, he found the two pirates standing there looking at him vacantly and pointed to the other side of the hold. "Go sit over there." Maybe that Force command was stronger than it had needed to be, but he was upset. The two pirates sat down together in the rear of the hold and blinked at him vacantly. "Good. Stay there."

Satisfied that things were under control in the hold, Luke went to check on Mara.

 

Now…

 

Leia opened her door to find her brother, Mara... and a familliar Spukamas in a carrier? "Uh... hi... Is Dark Star eating with us, too?"

Mara shook her head. "No, she already ate. She's just... clingy."

"Clingy?"

Luke nodded. "She hasn't let Mara out of her sight since lunch."

Leia stifled a laugh and stepped back to let them in. "Then she is welcome, too." She closed the door, and led them to the living area. "You can let her out if you want, Mara."

"You're sure?"

"She's not going to get any more fur around here than Chewie does," Leia pointed out, almost grinning at the expression Mara gave her.

Luke set the carrier down and listened for a moment. Something wasn't right. "It's... too quiet. Where are the kids?"

"Winter's," Leia said simply, as Mara unlatched the door to the carrier. Leia watched as Dark Star came out of the carrier and immediately got into Mara's lap, and seemed to glare at Luke as he sat down next to Mara, as if to say: 'Mine!' "Ah. I see what you meant."

Luke glanced down and saw that the feline was glaring at him again. "What'd I do?" he asked her defensively. Dark Star continued to give him 'the look.'

Mara laughed at the sillyness of it and scratched behind Dark Star's ears. "She's being all protective. It's kinda cute, really."

"Mara, she's been giving me that glare all afternoon. I think it's something more than being protective." He reached out and patted Dark Star on the head, and Dark Star let him. She still looked at him warily, but the glare wasn't as intense.

"Luke," Leia spoke up, startling him. "I think she really missed Mara, is all. Don't trading runs usually only last a month or two?"

Luke looked at her, down at Dark Star, and then at Mara. "Oh. That makes sense."

Mara blinked at him. "It does?"

Luke nodded. "I left her here, to go looking. See? Something more than being protective." He patted Dark Star on the head again. "Sorry about that, Darky."

Han came out to the living area and sat beside Leia on the arm of a chair. "Dinner's almost ready."

Leia smiled and put a hand on his arm. "Thank you, Han."

Han brandished his best lopsided smile at his wife, and then turned his attention to Mara. He wasn't really that surprised that Dark Star had come, too, as she was a frequent visitor when Mara was off-planet. "So... how are you, Mara?"

Mara looked away from Luke and the animal on her lap to smile at him. "Better all the while."

"Um-hmm... and?" At her silent stare, Han nodded in acknowledgement, having gotten all the information he needed. "Never mind."

~*~*~*~

"Well," Han said as he got up from the arm of the chair. "Got to see how dinner is coming along."

Leia watched him go, a smile on her lips, and then turned to look at Luke, who just shrugged and put an arm around Mara. Mara leanded into him, still smiling, and Dark Star curled up on her lap. Leia stared for a moment, then got out of her chair. "Don't move a muscle. I'll be right back."

Luke was puzzled as he watched Leia go, wondering what that was about, then shrugged.

"Luke?" Mara asked quietly. "Thank you for being so understanding about... my problem."

Luke pulled her a little closer and kissed the top of her head. "You're welcome, Mara."

Leia came back just then with a holocorder. "Do you mind if I..."

Mara smiled. "Not at all, Leia."

Leia snapped a holo of them, and then grinned. "There. Now I have a holo of you three together." Then she left again to go put the holocorder away.

~*~*~*~

At the dinner table, Luke was waiting for just the right moment to break their news, but it didn't seem like the right time to say anything. He glanced Mara's way, and she shook her head with a soft smile at the question in his eyes. "Not right now, no."

Leia, having heard her, broke into the moment. "What?"

"It can wait until after dinner," Mara said brightly.

"Right." Leia shared a glance with Han, who motioned to Mara's hand knowingly. Leia frowned, studied Mara for a moment, and blinked when she realized what Han was referring to. "Oh."

"Hmm?" Luke asked as he took a bite of his nerf steak.

"Nothing..." Leia waited a moment, then put her fork down. "...except that I just remembered something. I'm planning a party for Mon Mothma's life day, and... well... Mara? Would you like to help with that?"

Mara nodded as she ate some of her vegetables. "I'd be happy to... This is a good meal, Han. Very tasty."

"Better than the hospital food, huh?" Han asked her playfully.

"You have no idea." She rolled her eyes good naturedly, and Han laughed. "So, Leia? When is the party?"

"Two weeks." Leia glanced over and saw Mara shifting in her seat, and heard a soft 'meow.' "Mara?"

Mara shook her head. "It's nothing." She was avoiding Luke's concerned gaze. "I'm fine."

Leia was just about to ask what the problem was when Luke set his silverware down, got up, and moved his chair closer to Mara, who looked rather panicked.

Luke made her look at him. "It's all right, Mara. Tell me?"

"We... commed. Before."

"Oh." Luke pulled her into his embrace. "It's over now. We are together now. That is what matters." He looked at Han and Leia, shrugged. "We were going to go to dinner when she got back from the run."

Leia nodded, stood up and moved around the table to join them. Han did the same. "Luke's right, you know."

Mara nodded. "I know. Doesn't make it any less hard."

Han smiled reassuringly. "And look! You got to go out to dinner after all."

Mara took a deep breath to calm herself, and then looked at Han. "Thanks. For everything." She glanced at Luke a moment, then smiled. "We were going to wait a little longer to tell you this, but since you're both right here... we're engaged."

Leia smiled at her brother, then at Mara. "That's good news. Set a date?"

"Oh no..." Han whispered under his breath, knowing that his wife was already planning it in her head.

"No, not yet, Leia," Luke told her, as he slowly let go of Mara once he was sure she was somewhat better. "We haven't talked about that yet. Wasn't the right time."

Mini-crisis over, the four of them went back to their meal.

~*~*~*~

Setting foot inside the Jade's Fire for the first time since arriving on Coruscant with Mara, Luke sighed and looked around the hold. It had been… somewhat less than pleasant the last time he'd been in here. Those two pirates hadn't given much of a fight when he'd handed them over to Corellian officials, but they'd been under a Force compulsion for a day at that point.

Shaking that thought away, he looked around and found the bundle where he'd left it. Picking it up, he set it on a nearby box and slowly unwrapped it to find that the covering was actually a smock and the bundle was really a box with what looked like a New Republic Medical emblem on it.

Looking at the smock, he had to frown. Hadn't Ailee worn something like this on Yavin IV? He was pretty certain she had, but the material hadn't been… as transparent as this was. Odd…

~*~*~*~*~

When Luke returned to the apartment with the bundle under his arm, he found Mara just where he'd left her… asleep on the couch with Dark Star curled up next to her. Dark Star's eyes followed him as he turned and set what he'd found in the closet for now.

Then he turned back around and went to go sit in a chair to watch Mara sleep. Eventually, he nodded off himself. The purring of the feline on the couch had helped him relax once again…

~*~*~*~*~

Mara was watching the trainees as Luke led them through an excersize, wanting to take part but knowing that her body would protest if she did so. The trainees had been happy to see her when she'd walked in under her own power with Luke earlier, and one by one, each of them had acknowledged her presence with a nod and a smile.

She could tell they were trying to make her feel welcome, and it had, in ways she could not express.

"Trader Jade?" a voice asked, disrupting her train of thought.

Mara blinked and looked to find Kyp standing there, biting his lip with evident nervousness. "Yes, Durron?"

"I have been having trouble with a technique… could you help me with it?"

Mara smiled and slowly stood up. "Let's see what we can do about that… show me."

Across the room, Luke watched as Kyp showed Mara the technique he'd been having trouble with and nodded to himself, silently thankful that Kyp had asked her to help him.

Getting involved helped in ways that others could not…

~*~*~*~*~

Kyp listened as Mara showed him the correct way to do the technique, and then nodded when she handed the lightsaber handle back to him.

"Show me," Mara instructed him as she stood back. Kyp glanced at her, and then slowly demonstrated the technique a step at a time. "Stop… I see where you're having the difficulty." When Kyp looked at her in question, she smiled. "In the second part of the movement, your shoulder drops, and that puts you off balance on the follow through."

"Oh… How do I stop putting myself off balance, then?"

Mara took the saber back from him and carefully showed him the intricacies of the movement, demonstrating how he kept dropping his shoulder, and then how it was supposed to look when done correctly. "Like that."

Kyp nodded and did the exercise again. This time, he did it right.

~*~*~*~*~

In the darkness of the apartment, she sat on the couch with a warm, purring feline on her lap. Here, she was safe… protected by the darkness as it shrouded everything in a dark blanket until only sillouettes could be seen.

As she stroked Dark Star's fur, Mara reflected on the day. She'd sat in on a training session and helped Kyp on his form… the problem was that he'd kept dropping his shoulder and misaligning to pick up on the next movement. Once she'd made certain he understood that, he had thanked her and performed the movement correctly. She still didn't totally trust him, but… she could see the improvement in his manner, and that gave her reassurance on the matter of Kyp Durron.

She smiled in the darkness… it had been fun, to teach like that. Relaxing, even.

Slowly, she set Dark Star aside and got up, moving to the center of the room. Then she closed her eyes, and began to move through a kata, testing to see what her limits were.

No time like the present to test herself, in the darkness that felt like home.

~*~*~*~

Luke woke up to a feeling of serenity and blinked. That wasn't himself he was feeling… he rolled over to find that Mara wasn't in the bed, and then slowly got up and went to find her.

Standing in the doorway to the living room, he found her, eyes closed, and going through a meditation kata. He watched in silence until she came to a stop and her eyes opened. "Mara?"

She turned to him, and then joined him in the doorway. "Good morning."

"Hi." He bent to kiss her, and then smiled at her. "Your form in the kata looked wonderful."

"I'm glad you think so." And then she returned the kiss.

They stayed there in each other's arms for a little while.

~*~*~*~*~

Leia and Mara were sitting at the kitchen table in the Solo apartment ironing out plans for the party. "So the decorations are..."

Leia handed a flimsy sheet to Mara. "Set. It's going to look something like this."

Mara snorted in laughter and handed the flimsy back to Leia. "I hope not."

"Hmm?" Leia studied the flimsy a moment, blushed, and handed another one to Mara. "Sorry about that. This is the right one... but what did you think of that one?"

"All wrong for a party, great for a wedding reception..." Mara paused, realized what she'd just said, and glared mildly at Leia. "Uh-huh... Leia!"

"It's never to early to plan," Leia said defensively, then flashed a playful smile at Mara.

"Can we focus on the party? Please?" Mara rolled her eyes, and then studied the flimsy. "This works."

"Good."

"And what about entertainment?"

"Well... I'm torn between giving a speech, karaoke, and dancing."

"Why a speech?"

"Mon Mothma has led an interesting life."

"Ah... Perhaps not the speech, Leia. The karaoke?"

Leia smiled wistfully. "I fell in love with Han for the first time when he was embarrassing himself in a bar on Ord Mantell."

"Are polititions going to want to embarrass themselves for Mon Mothma?"

"Well... no. Which leaves dancing."

"It's an adult party." Mara told her gently. "Dancing is best."

Jaina entered the kitchen and went over to them. "What you doing?"

Leia picked the three year old up and sat her on her lap. "Planning a party, sweetheart."

"With clowns?"

Mara glanced at Leia. "Could that work?"

"Jaina, this is for Mon Mothma. She may not want clowns." Leia explained carefully.

"Why? Like clowns."

Mara smiled at the pained expression on Leia's face. "What could it hurt?"

"Mara, we had clowns at her and Jacen's third life day party. That's... not exactly the kind of party we're planning."

"You're the one who tried to plan my wedding and a life day party at the same time. That means I get to have a little fun with you... Besides, I've never been to a party with clowns before. Could be fun."

Leia looked from her daughter to Mara and back again. Finally, she sighed in defeat. "All right, all right. Clowns it is."

"And dancing?"

"Yes. Dancing, too."


	14. Chapter 14

He could hear the music as soon as he opened the front door of Mara's apartment. It was slow and almost ethereal, and made him feel like doing a meditation kata right there in the door way.

Wondering, Luke followed the music to the living room, where he found Mara, dancing with her eyes closed.

As he watched her, Luke could see that she was out of practice. It was in her form as she made certain movements. Alomst ungainly, yet graceful.

When the music came to an end, Mara opened her eyes and turned toward him. smiling ruefully. "Hi."

"You're beautiful," Luke blurted.

Mara came over, and put her arms around him. "You think so, hmm?"

"I know so... How did the party planning go with Leia today?"

"Fine. She tried to start our wedding planning in the middle of it, but otherwise not too bad." Mara glanced toward the couch and noticed Dark Star watching them intently. "We still have a chaperone."

Luke followed Mara's gaze. "So we do. Good." He leaned down and kissed her.

"Mmm..." Mara leaned into him. "Love you, farmboy."

"Wanna move back in with me?" She had moved back to her apartment a week after coming home from the hospital, saying that she needed some alone time to sort things out. He understood, but he missed having her close by.

"Not just yet." She smiled back up at him, knowing he was slightly frustrated. "Go to the party with me?"

"Definitely."

"How was class?" Since the incident the year before with an evil Sith lord ghost named Exar Kun, Luke had moved the Jedi Academy from Yavin 4 to one of Coruscant's four moons in an effort to be closer to family and also be able to teach students safely. It had, so far, been a wise decision, and the students were doing well.

"Not too bad."

"You're not going to elaborate, are you?" The wearyness that was rolling off him in waves caused her to chuckle. "Never mind."

"You up for some light sparring?"

Mara nodded slowly. "Yes..."

They sparred for an hour.

~*~*~*~

Mara and Luke were dancing when the clowns arrived, and Mara stared in disbelief. "She actually did it. Oh my."

"Hmm?" Luke asked as he glanced across the room. He saw the two familiar clowns and blinked in surprise. "Whose idea were those?"

"Jaina's."

"And Leia listened?"

Mara sighed. "She was trying to plan our wedding at the same time. You know, the wedding that we ourselves haven't discussed yet... Jaina brought it up, I ribbed, and Leia caved."

"Ah. Makes sense... kinda." Luke felt a sudden spike of emotion through the Force and glanced around, trying to figure out where it was coming from. "Did you feel that?"

Mara nodded. "I did. Seemed to coincide with the clowns, though I'm not sure why." The current song ended just then, and Luke led her over to a table. As Mara sat down, she smiled at him. "The dance was nice."

Luke smiled back at her. "Are you thirsty?"

"Yes. Would you get me some punch?"

"Would love to."

Mara watched as he made his way to the refreshment table and then turned her attention to the dance floor, where the guest of honor was dancing with Garm Bel Iblis. She was so intent on watching the dance floor, that she almost missed her Force senses warning her that someone was close by. Mara glanced around and noticed Senator Borsk Feylya sitting at the next table over and glaring at her. "Senator Feylya? Is something wrong?"

Feylya looked away. "No."

"Right..." Something in the way he'd looked at her, the way he'd said that one word, told her that things were far from all right.

Luke came back just then with a plate of food and two cups of punch. He set the food down, and handed her a cup. "Here."

Mara smiled at him. "Thank you."

Luke handed her a small container. "You forgot these yesterday, by the way."

Mara took the container from him with a sigh and put it in her pocket. "I was trying to forget about those."

He sat down beside her. "Mara..."

"What? I didn't want to think about it, and everytime I take one of these," here she held up the container, "It's all I can think about."

"The doctor gave you those for a reason," Luke said gently.

"And I'm fine," Mara emphasized through clenched teeth.

Luke pulled her close. "I know that, you know that, but the doctor didn't."

"I am not going to finish taking them, farmboy. It's... hard." Their eyes met and she saw the loving expression in his eyes.

"And?"

"No." She looked away from him and noticed that Feylya was glaring at her again. "Don't want to."

"It would give me peace of mind. Please?"

Mara watched as Feylya got up and marched toward the dance floor. "Strange."

"Mara?" Luke prompted.

She sighed. "All right. I'll take them... Just for you."

"I'm glad." Luke chuckled as she rolled her eyes at him. "Love you too, Mara."

~*~*~*~*~

Borsk Fey'lya had always hated clowns; ever since one scared him at a friend's Life Day party when he was a child.

So when clowns showed up at a party for Mon Mothma, he wasn't very pleased.

"Excuse me," the arrogant tone in Fey'lya's voice almost shocked the clown from his role playing.

"What can I do for you, little fella?" the clown hopped goofily over to the senator on his huge, floppy shoes and patted the irate being on the top of the head.

"Do you have any idea who I am?" Fey'lya demanded as he shoved the clown's hand away and glared at him. "I am a Senator of the New Republic! You will mind your place around me and show me the proper respect! I will not have you-"

He was interrupted by Mon Mothma and the other clown, brought over by the party stopping antics of the always crude creature.

"What seems to be the problem, Buckaroo?" the other clown's goofy, lilting voice only seemed to tick Fey'lya off more.

"I will not suffer this insult a moment longer! Mothma! I demand you remove these... These, monstrosities immediately!"

"Lighten up," Mon Mothma admonished. "No harm ever came from having Bobo and his brother Momo at a party. Calm down and enjoy yourself; it's a party."

"Momo no hurt you," the clown with the big red nose promised him. "Momo here to make you happy."

Bobo reached into his sleeve and brought out a bunch of pretty flowers and offered them to Fey'lya. "We make peace with you, little Buckaroo."

Fey'lya stared at the flowers, his face turning crimson. Everyone started laughing, some at the situation, others simply because they were enjoying the party; not even looking at him. That didn't matter much to Borsk Fey'lya, what they were laughing at.

To him, they were laughing at him. They always were. Didn't matter that there was a party going on; they all came there for one reason, to make fun of him. In this way, he was the most important being in the galaxy; while at the same time, he was nothing more than a running joke. An interesting dichotomy in the psyche of one man; but he didn't care about analysis at the moment.

Borsk Fey'lya was only concerned with two things. Two hideous faces staring right through him, sensing his fear and hatred. Two sinister pairs of bloodshot eyes, melting into his core and burning his body from the inside out.

The white painted faces with their evil psychotic grins dancing upon ruby-red lips was enough to send shivers down his spine. Everything else blurred in a rush of puffy red hair, round noses and those stupid water squirting flowers.

In a reaction that can only be classified as pure, visceral panic, he shoved Bobo into his brother and ran screaming pure terror from deep within his lungs.

The two clowns landed in the Life Day cake. Party-goers reached in to give the brothers a hand up, and Mon Mothma laughed as hard as she ever did.

Bobo eyed his brother and nodded slightly. Momo returned the nod knowingly and scoweled after the retreating Senator, Fey'lya.

The clown brothers went on with the show as always, and the party became livelier than before.

 

The next morning...

 

It had been a slow morning for the CPPF when Officer Melyan got a call that changed everything in about two seconds flat.

Darvis Melyan listened for a long moment, took notes, thanked the person for calling, and cut the connection. He sat there for a really long moment, staring at his notes in wonder, and then had to stifle a chuckle.

His partner looked up and frowned. "Dar?"

Darvis wordlessly handed the flimsiplast notes to his partner and got up to leave.

"Where are you going?" his partner, Fanlen asked as she watched him move away from the desk.

Darvis's composure nearly failed him as he glanced at her. "To get a crime scene kit."

Fanlen watched him leave the squad room in facination, and then looked down at the notes. Her eyes widened and she had to bite her lip to keep from laughing.

~*~*~*~*~

The apartment was, for lack of better terming, completely trashed. There were burned spots on the carpet, and gobs of an off-white substance splattered here and there. There was also a huge vat of the off-white substance sitting in the middle of the living room.

Darvis glanced at his partner as he took holos of the scene and noticed that she was putting something in a forensics bag. "What'd you find?"

"A small flask. Empty, but probably has fingerprints." She frowned as she put it away. "It's odd. I feel like I've seen a flask like it before, but I don't remember where from." Fanlen stood up and looked at the vat. "Did they search through that?"

Darvis shook his head. "Not according to my notes. Why?"

"Just a hunch." She walked around it, taking note of the hairs on the surface. "Weird."

"This whole case is weird, Fan." Darvis snapped a holo of a red ball that was lying on the floor by the door.

"True."

~*~*~*~*~

Luke and Mara were playing holochess and enjoying eachother's company when a news report caught Mara's attention. She frowned and turned the volume up.

_"And in other news tonight, Councilor Borsk Fey'lya, of Bothuwai, was found dead this morning in his home. He was found dressed in a clown outfit, and to all apearances it seems that he suffocated in vanilla pudding. However, a definitive autopsy has not yet been performed, as the healers assigned the case suddenly became hysterical with laughter and had to be sedated._

_The authorities are looking into possible leads, but all they have to go on is a gigantic pudding container, a rubber nose and a cream pie that was left at the scene."_

Mara stared in surprise, turned the volume back down, and turned to look at Luke, who was a bit stunned himself. "Pudding?"

"A rubber nose?" Luke wondered.

"A creme pie?"

"A clown outfit?"

They were silent for a full minute before they spoke in unison: "Nah."

~*~*~*~

Mara was hesitant as she walked down the halls of Coruscant Medical Center, searching for a person in particular. For all it's bright and clean atmosphere, she still didn't like it.

"Ms. Jade?" a voice called out from behind her.

Mara stopped, turned, and saw Iris coming toward her from the direction of a hospital room. "Hi."

"Can I help you with something?" Iris looked her over with a critical eye, and then smiled. "You certainly look better."

"Is there somewhere we can talk in private?"

Iris nodded. "There is." She led Mara to a consultation room not far from the nurses station. "Now, what do you want to talk about?"

"Would you... come to my wedding?"

Iris blinked in surprise. She hadn't been expecting that. "I'd be happy to... but why?"

Mara glanced away for a moment, then held Iris's gaze firmly. "Does it matter?"

"Ms. Jade, of course it matters. Tell me."

"I... Well... You kind of remind me of what my mother would have been like, if I remembered her." Mara shrugged and looked away again.

Iris placed a hand on Mara's arm, forcing her to look at her again. "All right. I'll happily go to your wedding."

"Bring your family, too."

"Of course."

~*~*~*~

Moira Melyan was staring at her son's image on the comm screen in befuddlement. This in itself wasn't unusual. The reason, however, was. "What wedding? Huh?"

"Just what I said, mother. Aunt Iris got a personal invitation from the bride."

"I'm still confused, Darvis. Why'd she get a personal invitation and why in the nine hells of Corellia did you wake me up to tell me?"

Darvis stopped a moment and looked at something out of frame. Then he turned back and had the presence of mind to look sheepish. "I forgot about the time difference. Sorry. Call you back in the morning?"

"I'm awake now, Dar. Just tell me, all right?" She wiped sleep from her eyes and did her best to appear alert. "Wish I had some Caf right now, though."

Darvis blinked when a steaming cup of Caf appeared from the left of the screen, and his mother smiled tiredly at someone out of frame. "Um... Aunt Iris told me to tell you that you're also invited, at the behest of the bride."

"Did she say why?" the masculine voice of his father asked while Moira took a careful sip.

"Something about not having close family and Iris befriending her during a stay in the hospital. She didn't explain that part very much. So can you come?"

"I've got a mission planned," Fosco told him, "but I'm pretty sure Moira can go."

Moira's eyes went distant for a moment, the way they always did when the Force spoke to her, or she meditated on something. "I think we'll all be there. With guests of our own, even."

"What?"

"Just a maybe, future in motion thing." Moira blinked, and then smiled at her son. "Tell Iris I will be there. Your father is optional."

"Will do." Darvis smiled and signed off.

Moira sipped her Caf and let Fosco turn her chair to face him. "Something strange is going to happen. Not sure what, exactly."

"Strange is our stock and trade, Moira. We take it as it comes."

"I know that. It's just... well..."

He bent and kissed her soundly. "Don't say it."

"All right. I won't."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Small thing about the above ^^ . A friend wrote Fey'lya freaking out on the clowns. Kudos and thanks to him.


	15. Chapter 15

Mara stared out the window of her apartment, trying to burn the image of skylanes in perfect harmony into her mind. There was a sense of order there in the way the vehicles moved. A kind of lolling serenity to it.

Luke sat on her couch, reviewing his notes for classes. Close, but not intruding. "You can talk to me, you know."

"I know... Do you think Leia will be upset if we hold off on the wedding for a while?"

Luke glanced up at her, puzzled. "No, I don't think she will be. It's our wedding, and if you want to wait, then we wait."

She looked toward him, frowning slightly. "It's more than that... I want... to..." She stopped and looked out the window again. "I want our wedding night to be... something we'll treasure."

Luke stood up and crossed the room to join her at the window. "It will be."

Mara let him embrace her. "I... can't yet, Luke."

"I know... and you don't have to, either."

"Why do you love me?"

"Because you're you."

"Would you love me if I was ugly?"

"Yes," he said without hesitation.

"If I could never... you know. Would you still love me?"

"Yes, Mara. Even then."

"How much do you love me?"

"More than there are stars in the sky, more than there are waves on the sand... More than life itself."

Minutes slipped by in silence as they looked out the window. Finally, Mara spoke. "I think... I'm ready to talk about it."

"Really?"

"Really. There's no harm in talking about an event in our lives."

"If you're sure."

"I am."

"All right, then."

They sat down on Mara's couch, and Luke listened as she poured out her heart to him about what happened during her months as a prisoner.

Luke listened intently, occasionally asking pointed questions, which Mara answered. Hesitantly, but she answered them.

In the end, Mara, fully spent from reliving every detail, leaned against him, unable to dredge up any more. "There. Do you hate me?"

Luke held her tightly. "No, Mara. I don't hate you. I love you."

"I was so afraid that if I told you, you would hate me. Forever."

He pulled away to look at her. "Why?"

"Doesn't matter now."

"Yes it does."

She took in the fact that he was interested and concerned, and then sighed. "Because they... tainted me."

"Let me tell you something, Mara."

"All right."

"If it wasn't me, it doesn't count."

Mara blinked at him, surprised. "You really believe that?"

"I really do."

The kiss they shared was long, hard... and would have made a hardened pirate blush with embarrassment.

~*~*~*~

Mara was getting increasingly frustrated as she tried to do a basic lightsaber exercise. "Gah!"

"You're going about it wrong," Luke said from where he was leaning against the wall and watching.

"Either help me or be quiet, Farmboy." She threw a glare at him and braced herself for another stinging bolt. The remote fired again, she missed, and swore up a storm.

Luke shook his head and put the remote on pause. "All right. Deactivate your saber."

"Why?"

"Just trust me."

Mara considered him a moment, then turned the saber off and latched it to her belt. "I trust you."

Luke handed his saber to her, stood behind her, and placed his hands on hers to demonstrate the movement. "Let it flow, like the motion of hitting a smashball." He reactivated the remote. "Now, we are going to do this together. Relax."

"All right." She let him guide her hands as the remote began firing bolt after stinging bolt. Time seemed to blur, and when the cycle was over, she blinked. They had blocked them all. "Wow."

Luke let go of her hands and moved back. "The thing here that you're missing is that you need to give the Force control. Let it be your guide."

"That's hard."

"Well, if it were easy, it wouldn't be worth doing, now would it?"

"True." He motioned for his saber and she gave it back to him. "You want me to try again?"

"Not try. Do."

She got her saber out again, turned it on... and missed the first barrage. "What am I doing wrong, oh wise Farmboy of mine?"

"Close your eyes and visualize the room. You KNOW where the remote is, but your eyes can fool you. Let the force tell you."

"Like when I dance?"

"Exactly like when you dance."

Luke watched as Mara closed her eyes and let herself relax. He quietly turned the remote on again.

She got every single one.

~*~*~*~

Mara watched him from the doorway as he read old records, and sighed. "You didn't tell me what happened."

Luke looked up at her from the datapad he was pursuing, somewhat confused at the sudden question. "Huh?"

"In that place. I remember the sound of a lightsaber... So what happened?"

Luke looked away from her. "Not now, Mara."

"Yes now, Luke." She sat down and made him look at her. "Please tell me. Are they dead? What?"

"I... Yes, at least one is dead."

"At least?"

"Yes. I saw what they were doing, broke cover, and they shot at me. The shots I deflected, well... hit people." He glanced at her and saw the expression of mild surprise. "Okay, the shots hit a lot of them. There were five, maybe seven there at the time."

"And?"

"And I was too late to save someone. At first, I thought it was you..." He trailed off and stared into mid-air for a moment. "I wasn't even completely certain you were there. It was just a hunch."

"Why didn't you know?"

"I couldn't sense you."

"So it wasn't just me, then."

"Huh?"

Mara looked down at the floor, and shook her head slowly. "I couldn't sense you until you were right in front of me. I heard the comotion, sure... but.." She blinked away the tears that came with remembrance.

"Hey." He took her into his arms and they comforted eachother. "It's over now."

"I'm afraid."

"So am I... of losing you again."

When Mara spoke again, her voice was hesitant. "Talon wanted to know if I was up for a trading run... I told him no."

Luke glanced down at her. "What if I went along?"

"What about your students?"

"Kam and Tionne did a fine job whole I was off searching for you. I don't see why they couldn't do the same again."

"But what about the wedding?"

"We can have it after."

Mara just looked at him for a really long minute. "You mean that?"

"Sure do."

"You're telling Leia, then."

"Now I'm confused. What does telling Leia have to do with it?"

"She's knee-deep in wedding plans. You don't even want to know about the dress search." Mara shuddered at the mere thought of some of the dresses that she'd tried on. "If we leave, it... well it couldn't get any worse, could it?"

Luke stared at her. "What?"

"You asked."

Luke thought about it for a moment, then smiled. "All right. I'll talk to Leia, on the condition that you comm Talon and arrange to go on a trading run. Deal?"

"Deal."

~*~*~*~

Leia stared at her brother with an exspression of incredulity. "You're going where?"

"On a trading run with Mara. She needs to go, Leia."

"But why now?"

"Because now is the perfect time and we both need to get over our demons."

"And the wedding?"

Luke sighed at the whining tone her voice had taken on. "When we get back, the wedding will go on as planned."

"But..." Leia stopped, only now noticing to tired expression in his eyes. "What?"

"She asked me what happened. I told her, but in vague detail. That's... not enough. I know it won't be, Leia. Some things must be seen to be truly understood."

Leia shifted through that and nodded slowly. "I think I understand."

"Good, because I can't explain it any better than that."

"Check in regularly."

Luke nodded, squeezed her hand, and left.

~*~*~*~*~

Mara sat at the comm station with Dark Star on her lap and prepared to enter a comm code. It should have been simple, easy even. Just tap a few buttons in the right sequence. Other person on other end picked up, and presto... conversation.

But this wasn't an easy comm to make. It... just wasn't.

Mara glanced down at Dark Star, smiled as the feline leaned into a pleasant ear scratch, and made her choice. Hard or not, she was making this comm.

The comm went off without a hitch.

~*~*~*~*~

On Corellia, a woman was having nightmares.

"No! They can't!" The woman moaned as she tossed and turned in her sleep. "They can't!" She thrashed once more, and then woke up with a sudden gasp.

As Moira sat there, breathing heavily in the darkness, images from the nightmare came back to her. They swirled around in her minds eye before she tried to blink them away, but the images refused to fade. Refused to be ignored.

Images of people dying, and of warriors she'd never seen before with unfamiliar armor, and of a young couple alone in the darkness of a dying ship, holding each other for dear life and the man whispering words of comfort into the young woman's ears.

So much senseless carnage had filled her dreams of late, but it was this dream that left her stunned. It was this one that hardened her resolve and made her take notice.

The galaxy was going to fall unless she did something about it.

She got out of bed, thankful that her husband was away on a mission, and crossed the room to open a small lockbox that sat on her dresser. She pulled out a minature signaling device, considered it for a moment, and then pressed the activating button.

The call had been sounded, and now it was out of her hands.

~*~*~*~*~

When Luke got back to the apartment, he found Mara still sitting in front of the comm station. "Did you call?"

"Yes. We're leaving tomorrow."

"Sounds good to me."

She turned to look at him, her green eyes weary. "It was hard."

Luke got down on his knees and looked her straight in the eyes. "I know, Mara." He petted Dark Star on the head, and she glared at him a little. "Dark Star should go, too, don't you think?"

Mara nodded. "Most definitely."

~*~*~*~

Beyond the reaches of wild space, a threat is making itself known. A threat is looming.

From beyond the darkness, beyond the outer rim, a fleet is pressing ever onward.

Without remorse, they come.

Their only thoughts: to find a home. To destroy all in their path.

In the darkness of wild space, a threat is looming.

~*~*~*~

Han watched as Leia stood at the kitchen sink, her arms crossed and her shoulders tense. If he hadn't been able to see her face, he'd have known by her posture that something wasn't right… "Leia?"

Leia startled and looked up at him. "What?"

He crossed the kitchen to join her at the sink. "Is something wrong?"

Leia looked away from him. "They're going on a trade run, Han."

Han stopped for a moment, letting that sentence sink in. Then he put a hand on her shoulder. "They'll be fine."

Leia was silent for a long while, then looked at him. "You really think so?"

Han nodded, smiling with a strength he did not feel. "I do. It'll do them some good, Leia."

"But…"

"No buts," Han whispered as he pulled Leia into an embrace and kissed her soundly. When they parted, he smiled down at her. "Besides… they've got Dark Star with them, right? She's not going to let them get hurt, and I wouldn't want to be on her bad side if someone were threatening Mara. Would you?"

Leia stared at him unblinking, and then a chuckle escaped her lips. "No. I wouldn't… Thank you." She pulled him into another kiss.

~*~*~*~

Luke glanced at Mara, smiling as she went through the routine of powering up her ship. She looked… beautiful, even while scanning her instruments and getting a departure vector. Glancing down, he sighed at the glare that Dark Star was still directing at him.

"She's just being herself, you know," Mara suddenly said, interrupting his thoughts. "There's a ball of string in that compartment over there. See if that helps."

Luke opened the compartment that she'd motioned to… to find a ball of multi-colored string? "What is this for?"

"Aves gave it to me for her. She likes to chase it."

Luke bent down and rolled the ball toward the feline. Dark Star looked at the string, then up at him, but didn't move to jump on it like he thought she would. "Am I doing this wrong?"

"Yes. Unravel it a little, then try."

Frowning, Luke retrieved the ball of string, and tried again, trailing the string in patterns and snaking it along the deck plate. Dark Star went chasing after it, grabbing it in her teeth.

Mara glanced over and smiled. "Take off in an hour, you two…"

Luke looked away from Dark Star and saw Mara smiling at him. "An hour?"

"Yes. An hour."

He patted the spot on the floor next to him. "Then come over here and join us."

Mara shook her head. "I want to watch. You're cute with a ball of string in your hands like that."

He mock-glared at her. "Cute?"

"Um-hmm… you might want to pay attention to her. She's ferocious with a ball of sting sometimes. However did you manage it with her while I was off planet, hmm?"

Amused at the question and mindful of Dark Star's claws, Luke unraveled the string a little more and Dark Star pounced on it again. "Come to think of it, I did wonder where my boot laces went…"

Mara laughed, and Luke blinked at the sound. She hadn't laughed like that in way too long. "Should we search your apartment for those when we get back? If you still want 'em, that is."

"Probably." He let the string out some more and made it float in the air. Dark Star stopped and watched curiously. Then she walked round it, and under it. Sniffed it. "Is she confused?" Luke got his answer when Dark Star bit into the string and tugged it down back to the deck. She let go of it, staring at it as he made it rise again, this time making it seem to move under its own power.

"Luke…"

"What? You said she liked the string."

"You planning on teaching her how to use the Force, too?"

Luke frowned and looked at Mara. "I'm sorry?"

"You heard me," Mara said as she stared at him with a frown deeper than any he'd seen since she'd pulled him all the way to medical by his arm. "Unnecessary use of power, isn't it? Stop."

He blinked at the reminder, and let the string settle back to the deck. "I was just…"

Now she joined him, eyes neutral as could be. She took the ball of string from his hands and set it down, picking up her companion as she did so. "It's that simple. How many things we do, that could be explained away with an 'but it doesn't hurt anyone' or 'it's just this one time and will never happen again.' Except that one time can turn into many and it does hurt someone eventually. People you love and care about. Ones you've never even met. You. Me."

Luke sat there, blinking at her in utter surprise. She'd been to a place and things had happened to her that he didn't even want to think about, and yet, here she was, reminding him of how easy it was to slip. He wanted to look away from her, to not face what she was very clearly saying to him, but in the end could only nod. She was right. It was that simple. "Thank you… Can we try it again?"

"No Force tricks with the string," she reminded him as she let Dark Star down again and handed him the ball of string.

Luke nodded. He could do that. "One step at a time?"

"Yes, Farmboy. One step at a time."

As he tossed a length of string out for Dark Star and wiggled it a little with his hand, he wondered what he'd do without Mara. Blinking, he shook that thought away… it hit too close to home, nor did he ever want to find out.

They played with the string until flight control commed with their clearance to leave.

~*~*~*~

Mara found him sitting in the small galley, staring at the ball of string in his hands. She watched him for a long moment, and then joined him at the table. "Ball of string for your thoughts?"

"Not even worth one of these," he mumbled.

"Really?"

He put the string down but didn't look at her. "I just…" Luke blinked when she took hold of his hands and shook her head. "What?"

"It's real simple to slip," she told him. "The difference between going dark and staying there is that you know you did it and you'll never do it again."

Luke nodded. "I think I understand…"

"But every time is a little different, and it is always a choice. Do one or the other, or don't do them at all." She peered at him, making her final point without saying it. A choice to speak, or to remain silent and let the actions speak.

Luke nodded. "Thank you, Mara."

Mara just smiled and leaned closer, kissing him softly. Tenderly. When she pulled away, she jumped slightly, startled by Dark Star landing in her lap and looking at her as if to say 'I want attention too!'

She looked up at Luke with a smile, and he nodded. They were both agreed that it was going to be a long couple of weeks. Luke scratched behind one of Dark Star's ears before getting up. "Are you hungry?"

"I was just about to ask you that same thing. Yes, I am."

He went to the food storage and began to make the evening meal. Some things… they could wait to discuss them until later. They certainly had the time...

~*~*~*~

After more than ten minutes of silence, Mara sighed. "I'm sorry."

Luke set his fork down and studied her. "For what?"

"Coming down on you so hard, Luke," she said as she looked away from him and he reached across the small table to grab her free hand.

"Don't be that way, Mara. I did need to hear it, even if it's the last thing I wanted to hear." When she still didn't look at him, he squeezed her hand. "Hey…"

When Mara raised her eyes to look at him, she found him smiling. "You're…"

"Happy to be here with you," Luke said earnestly. He waited a beat, then nodded. "Dark Star, too."

Mara glanced down at the feline curled once again in her lap and couldn't help but return his smile. "She's really not going to let me go anywhere without her, is she?"

"No. Not that that's a bad thing."

Mara sat there, taking in the purring animal on her lap and Luke holding her hand, and took a deep cleansing breath. Just like she'd told him earlier: one step at a time, one thing at a time. That was all anyone could ask of either of them.

"And Mara?"

"Yes?"

"Food's getting cold."

Blinking at the sudden change of subject, Mara looked at him again and had to fight the urge to laugh. "Can't have that, can we?"

"No. It's better hot." With a reassuring squeeze, Luke let go of her hand and they returned to eating.

She had to agree... it was definitely better hot.


	16. Chapter 16

Iris was sitting at the nurses station, inputting patient information when someone cleared their throat and got her attention. She looked up from the screen to find her nephew standing there with a smirk on his face. She studied him for a long moment before drawing a definite conclusion. "You commed her."

"Of course," he told her, still smirking his head off.

"And you woke your mother up again, didn't you?"

"Yes."

Iris sighed. "Darvis, that wasn't why I wanted you to comm her, you know."

Darvis leanded closer. "Iris, Father told me to comm often."

"And now I owe him twenty credits."

"What?"

"He and I had a wager... You forgetting the time difference every time you call home. So far, I'm losing."

Darvis was silent for a long moment as he thought that through. "Oh. Sorry."

"Don't be. At least you call your mother on a regular basis... I'll just bet that Moira doesn't mind being woken up at 0200 if it's you."

"You'll get the chance to ask her that."

"Good. Maybe I will... Staying long?"

Darvis shook his head. "No. Need to get back to headquarters."

Iris nodded and watched as he walked away. Her family was amusing at times... this was one of those. Shaking her head, Iris returned to the patient's chart.

~*~*~*~

The grand audience chamber hadn't changed much since she'd been here last, performing her duty as a medic. As she climbed the steps, Ailee almost expected to find a sleeping man on the raised stage.

Standing on the top step, she smiled at that thought and turned to look across the room. It felt so odd not to have her datapad right then...

"Ailee? Is something wrong?"

"No." Ailee glanced at the little girl and sighed. "We have to talk, Princess."

'Princess' blinked up at her in confusion. "About what?"

Ailee sat down on the steps and motioned for the translucent little girl to sit beside her. "Clothing."

"I don't understand."

She motioned to the garments she was wearing. "See these?"

"Yes."

"We wear clothing for modesty and protection. As a sort of... shield against the cold."

'Princess' scrutinized her calmly, obviously still confused. "I'm not cold and I am protected in the Force."

"Humor me here, please." Ailee raised a translucent eyebrow and waited until the little girl seemed to get the point. Soon, she was wearing a... very brown, very plain jumpsuit. "Better."

"I still don't get it. Modesty?"

"Um-hmm... sure, no one can see you, but you can see yourself," Ailee said as she shrugged and looked away. This place... she'd wondered what it had been like, for someone to go unnoticed by all but one person. It was eerie.

"What happened here?" The question was sudden and surprising that Ailee could only turn and stare at the child for several long moments. "Tell me? Please?"

Ailee smiled and put her arm around the little girl. "Well... it all started with your father getting knocked unconscious..." And, after all, for her it had... if not for the persons in question.

Dimension: LWA252  
May 9, 2053  
Crystal Cove, Califorina  
Johnson Residence

Ranko was writing and muttering to herself as she concentrated on her thesis on Aerodynamics and the Solar Wind when her communicator beeped, startling her. She ran a hand through her red-streaked blonde hair before answering it. "This is Red Wave."

The sound that came out of the miniature speaker, however, wasn't a voice. No, it was morse code: SOS, which repeated three times. And then words in a language that Ranko understood well.

She frowned as she wrote the message down on paper: "SOS, SOS, SOS... please come. Help us. [universal coordinates] Crisis is in progress."

Ranko stared at the coordinates. She knew where those were, but didn't remember who she'd given a signaling device to from there.

"Ranko?" her husband asked as he came into their well-lit kitchen and noticed that she was staring at a piece of paper in near-shock. "Is something wrong?"

"I'm not sure." She handed him the paper and watched him as he read it. "Got that a minute ago."

"Weird. It's one of our signal devices, right?"

"Yep. Ours have that standard SOS morse at the beginning." She glanced down at her thesis work and sighed. "This will have to wait for later, I guess. We need to call the team together."

"Why? You and I can go and sort things out on our own."

She glared at him. "Peter? We had a team the last time we were there. We promised a team would show up if the signal was sounded, and a team it is going to be. Got it?"

Peter nodded slowly, taking in the determination in her eyes. "Got it."

"Good."

Peter watched as Ranko slowly stood up and went to find her address book. "It's not going to be simple to find everyone on the fly like this, you know."

Ranko snorted. "Yeah, I know." She found it, and then sat back down and thumbed through it. "Let's see… we've got twenty-two at home, Mel's on Planet Bob, Whuki and Rala are on a mission somewhere…"

"We don't need a full team, Ranko."

"No, but going in prepared is a good thing." Ranko set down the address book and reached for the phone. "Ariel is not going to like this…"

Elidar  
Resident Training Center

Aniya Ravin was just coming out of her office when she ran into a very determined leader of the Wave Rangers. "Oh, hi, Ranko... Something wrong?"

Ranko shook her head. "Not really. How do I contact Melinda?"

Aniya stared at her for a moment. "Melinda? I thought you two weren't speaking."

"Aniya, I got a distress call earlier today and I'm rounding up what team members I can. I'm only asking about Melinda because I have to." Ranko paused. "I even pulled Elsie out of Greenland, which she wasn't happy about."

"Greenland?"

"Long story..."

"Ah. You picked a good day to have an all-team call. Melinda is in the computer lab, submitting her weekly report."

~*~*~*~

Ranko entered the computer lab to find not only Melinda, but Amy as well, seated at computers and typing away. She stood there for a moment before moving to sit next to Melinda. "Hi."

Melinda barely spared her a glance. "Hi, yourself."

Ranko sighed as she watched Melinda's fingers move furiously across the keyboard. "Mel?"

"I'm not doing it, whatever it is. No."

"I'm not asking you to. I am trying to say I'm sorry."

Melinda stopped typing, but didn't look at her. "And?"

Ranko glanced at Amy, who had turned to look at them, then turned her attention back to Melinda. "It was wrong of me to say the things I did. I apologize for totally rejecting your resignation on the spot without discussing it with you as to why I can't accept it."

Now Melinda turned and looked at her, and regarded the leader of the Wave Rangers with cool eyes. "I accept your apology... but I want to know why."

"So do I," Amy piped in. "Not that it's any of my business. Oh, wait. I'm a Wave Ranger. It is my business."

Ranko resisted the urge to roll her eyes. It wouldn't do this situation any good. "Because, once a Wave Ranger, always a Wave Ranger. I can't take the power back, you can't resign. The only person to ever resign, died while doing so."

Melinda stared at her. "What?"

"You asked. Now do you understand why I said no? I don't care if you're a time element, Mel. You are, and always will be, a Wave Ranger. It's who you are." Ranko glanced at Amy. "And I'm here to ask one thing. Amy? Care to undertake a mission?"

Amy glanced at Melinda with a coy smile. "Is it weird?"

"Most likely," Ranko answered with a small grin.

"Then I'm in."

"Okay."

Melinda glanced once at her computer screen in contemplation, then smiled. "So am I."

Ranko smiled. "Only if you want."

"Well, seeing as the last mission we were all on together involved Demitri's anime fetish and your uniform getting really dirty due to dinosaurs, I'd say we're about due for some weirdness." Melinda smiled again, and glanced at Amy. "Wouldn't you?"

Amy laughed. "Yes, I'd say we are."

Ranko sighed in relief. She'd almost forgotten about that incident, too. "Oh, not everyone is coming on this one. Some, like Jessica and Rebecca, are on medical leave. Others, like Leah and Rose, flat out refused."

"They what? Why?"

Ranko frowned. "Well, Leah mentioned having been to Alaska in the winter time and disliking it. Not certain what she meant by that, exactly."

~*~*~*~

It had been close to ten years since they'd been in the same room together, Ranko reflected as she looked around the Training Center's lounge at the team she'd been able to assemble on such short notice. Sitting on various couches, her fellow teammates looked more like they were going to stage a chess convention than go into battle.

In a rather comfy-looking rocking chair was Susan, who was currently cradling an infant. While she was technically out on a medical leave for reasons related to the infant, Susan had agreed to man the keyboards on account of wanting to be somehow involved.

"Is Victoria going to be in your arms while you type?" Ranko asked her younger half-sister curiously.

"No, Ranko. Emanee volunteered to babysit." Susan then turned her attention back to the infant. "Isn't that right, Vicky? Aunty Em is going to be watching you. Yes she is, yes she is."

The baby laughed as Ranko smiled, and turned her attention to the others. Chris was talking quietly with Elsie, who was rolling her eyes playfully at him. Ranko noticed that she still appeared exhausted and wondered if maybe it had been a bad idea to pull the woman off her leave time.

Sitting not far from those two was Chris's older sister, Ariel, who kept glancing toward Chris and Elsie with an expression of concern. Ranko couldn't blame her for that, as she was concerned, too.

"Okay, here's the roll call for this mission." Ranko took a deep breath and let it out, then looked at her team. "Jessica, Ash, and Vincent? You're staying on Elidar to monitor the mission. I know that's not what you expected, but that's how it's got to be on this one. Sorry."

Vincent smiled from his seat on the couch. "Don't worry about it, Ranko." As evidenced by the sling on his arm, he was effectively sitting this one out anyway.

She glanced at him and nodded. "Everyone else is going. Our call signs are as follows. I am Lightning, Peter is Shadow, Dawn is Gypsy, Ariel is Mermaid-"

Ariel laughed, interrupting her. "Mermaid? Seriously?"

"What? You don't like it?"

Ariel shook her head. "No. I love it. Continue. Please."

Ranko smiled. "Okay. Amy is Fire, Allison is Light Thrower."

"Now that's a name," Allison commented.

"Thought you'd like it. Melinda is Windy." Ranko stopped and looked quesioningly at Melinda.

Melinda smiled. "What? It's perfect."

"Elsie is Dusty, and Chris is Echo." Ranko looked at the two in question.

Chris smiled. "Fine by us."

Susan's hand went up. "Don't we get call signs, too?"

Ranko nodded. "I thought of that when I was making up the team roster. Sue, you're Thunder, Jessica is Sound, Savage is Hurricane, and Vincent is Ice."

~*~*~*~

Ranko glanced at Susan curiously as the meeting broke up and everyone gathered themselves up. She'd handed a piece of paper over and the exact coordinates of the beacon call were startling. "Are you sure?"

"No, but if the call came from there..." Susan shrugged.

"Funny."

"Usually." Susan nudged Ranko's arm with her free hand. The one that wasn't holding Victoria. Victoria... named for her father who had died before her birth. "You be careful, big sister."

"Careful is not our business, you know."

"Not the point and you know it... and I'll harangue Savage if you need her."

Ranko laughed and waved Peter off when he glanced at her questioningly from across the room. "Just tell her that I threatened to fry Thunder's mainframe for incentive. She'll know what that means."

"Um-hmm... In case of emergency, break glass. Have no fear..."

"That's all I seem to have right now, Sue... How you holding up?"

"We're not talking about that, remember?"

Ranko shook her head at the non-answer, wanting to probe some more. "Yes. That bad?"

"Been better."

Ranko put a hand on her younger sister's arm and they locked eyes, Ranko wanting a straight answer and finding one in eyes that couldn't lie to her... they were family, and she knew her like a book. Then, satisfied, she nodded, released Susan's arm, and began to walk away. "Keep the comms open."

"Was just about to say the same thing to you, you lightning rod."

Ranko snorted, glad to know that, whatever she may have been feeling inside, Susan was, in fact, handling it quite well. "Will do."

"Good."

Dimension: SW1138-EAF  
Location: Hoth, outside former Echo Base Perimeter  
Mission Elasped Time: 10 minutes, 20 seconds

"Ranko?"

"Yes?"

"Are you friends with the abominable snowmen?"

Ranko turned and looked to where Elsie was pointing. Her eyes widened. "Uh... no?"

"Gosh, they seem really angry," Peter commented.

"More like hungry," Dawn muttered.

Ranko stared at the looming one-armed Wampa. "What in the… guys! Find the ship! We'll draw them off!"

Dawn blinked as Ranko grabbed Peter, and together they began to draw the attention of the advancing Wampas. "How the heck are we supposed to find it? It's covered with a snowdrift!"

"Just find it!" Peter yelled.

Dawn startled when someone touched her hands on both sides and she turned to find Elsie on one side and Chris on the other. She nodded. Now was the time for action. "I hate doing things like this under the gun."

They found the ship…

On Board the Wave Runner...

[Well, that was pointless,] Susan's voice said over the team comm system. [What's the point of answering a distress call if the one's in distress are going to eat you if you show up?]

Dawn rolled her eyes at her teammate's jibe. "They weren't the people in distress, Sue." She wasn't even sure if they were people.

[Really? You sure?]

Dawn looked questioningly at Ranko, who was checking over the ship's systems. "Well, fearless leader?"

Ranko turned around and leaned against the console. "We're heading for Corelia. Checked the newsfeeds and came up with the normal rumbles, but nothing that stands out. Other than some minor crisis somewhere, that is..."

[Crisis?] Savage asked, sounding concerned. [Did it give details?]

"Savage, if it gave details, we wouldn't be as lost as we are." Melinda sighed as she scanned the report again, and shook her head. "Nothing. Sue, run a scan. Maybe we're missing the obvious."

[Just a moment,] Susan said as she typed. Ten seconds went by and then they heard her gasp. [Oh my.]

"What?" Melinda looked across the cabin at Ranko, who was frowning suddenly. "What 'oh my?'"

[Let me worry about it for now, Mel. Ranko, just head for Corellia, all right? Best to get right to the source of the distress signal, you know?]

Ranko turned around and started plotting out a course with the navicomp. "Done. You're sure that is where the distress call originated?"

[I think so. I'll do some checking.] There was silence as they waited for confirmation, and then Susan spoke again. [Was the distress call in Elvish?]

Ranko frowned, suddenly remembering something. "Yes, now that I think about it."

[Why would someone on Corellia have a Wave Ranger signal device?]

Ranko looked across the cabin at her husband, and he nodded. "We gave one to Moira. It makes sense."

"Who is Moira?" Elsie asked, very confused.

"Someone we met while on the 2015 mission," Peter explained. He kept is gaze on his wife, who now looked uncomfortable. "Ranko?"

"It's not my fault! She found out by accident."

"Because you purposefully taught her Quenya."

"I'm really lost, here," Chris said, interrupting the argument. "Someone found out about something because Ranko taught them a language?"

Amy laughed. "It's not near as bad as my getting thrown in the brig by Odo... which I'm never going to live down, either. So, leader woman... what did this Moira overhear?"

"Peter being an idiot," Ranko said simply. "About the dementional frisbee. Which hadn't finished charging at that point, so it wasn't even worth arguing about. And, actually, I was teaching her how to understand cryptography."

"In Elvish?" Peter asked, surprised.

Ranko sighed. "It was the only way she understood it. It's funny, really. I found out later, from her master, that he always had to teach her stuff unconventionally."

"Really? How so?"

"He had to tie her to a chair and ignore her to teach her telekinesis."

[As interesting as this is,] Susan broke in, [and even though I'd love to hear all about this Moira person... My recommendation is that you guys head for Corellia. We know not a lot, and who ever sent the call probably knows more than we do.]

[Ranko?] Jessica spoke up. [I've been looking at a timeline here and none of it makes any sense.]

"Are there any temporal anomalies?" Peter asked as Ranko turned around and began to set the hyperdrive computer again.

[We'll get back to you on that,] Susan told him. [I'm going to get a time guardian or two in here, just in case.]

"I have a small question," Elsie said as she raised her hand. "Why was there a ship ready and waiting for us that was disguised as a massive snowdrift?"

"Aniya did that for me," Ranko said as she entered the last coordinate. "As per our status as an Interdementional Defense Force, if the situation requires the use of an interstellar vessel, then we are to be provided with one. In this case, it not only requires it, but the ship is also essential."

"Yeah," Dawn muttered. "Because, heaven forbid, that we be stuck on a planet that only Vincent can tolerate."

[I love you, too, sweetie.]

Corellia

Moira studied the device intently, wondering if they were coming.

She thought back to her time as an exchange student at the Jedi Temple on Coruscant. She'd hated being there at the time, because of the rules that had been imposed for the duration of her stay. No outside contact from her family had been allowed. It hadn't been the best of experiences, but... she'd have done it again in a heartbeat.

The device beeped, calling her attention back to it. It was glowing.

Moira smiled in relief. They're coming, she thought. Good.

~*~*~*~

Mara sat in her pilot's chair in the cockpit of the Jade's Fire and stared out at the molted sky of hyperspace. She was having second thoughts about this trip. It was strange, really. As they'd packed their things and prepared the ship to leave, she'd begun to have a feeling of wrongness, like something was going to happen, in the pit of her stomach.

She shook her head for a moment, reserved about the whole thing. If something was going to happen, then it would.

"You're worried," Luke stated from the door of the cockpit.

"Of course I am."

Luke came into the cockpit, with Dark Star trailing behind him, and came to stand beside her. "It's going to be fine."

"You think so?"

"I know so."

Famous last words, Mara thought as she let the subject drop.

~*~*~*~

Mara was sorely tempted to lock Dark Star in her quarters as they docked with the Wild Karrde at their rendezvous point. She knew the feline wouldn't go for it, and that she'd also be under foot the entire time... but she'd been under foot and nearby for weeks on end and now it was common place. Or felt that way. "Think he'll be happy to see us?"

Luke nodded. "I don't know why he wouldn't be happy to see you, Mara. You're... you."

Mara rolled her eyes at him as she unbuckled and stood up. "Really? Well then... You, me, myself, and I are going to go say hello." She glanced down at Dark Star and smiled. "With a chaperone, no less."

Luke stifled a laugh as he followed Mara to the boarding ramp. As they exited the ship, Karrde stood there waiting for them. "Karrde."

"Skywalker," Karrde greeted him, smiling as Mara sighed and finally picked Dark Star up. "You brought her?"

"Couldn't leave her on Coruscant," Mara told him as she handed the feline over. "Here."

Karrde blinked and tried to get a firm grip, but Dark Star hissed and jumped out of his arms to land squarely on the deck beside Mara. "Um..."

Mara shrugged. "So this cargo?"

Karrde paused and studied Mara's face for a moment, glanced at Luke who nodded indiscernably, and nodded. Aside from the odd moment of trying to hand Dark Star off to him, she seemed fine. That was good enough for him. "Right this way," he said as he led them out of the landing bay.

~*~*~*~

"It's medical supplies?" Luke asked as he read the manifest over Mara's shoulder.

"Yes," Karrde answered. "They're going to a planet called Lammarred. You've been there before, Mara."

Mara was still studying the manifest and she nodded. "Kind of out of the way, but the natives are nice."

Karrde glanced down to find Dark Star watching them. He'd noticed she had followed them all the way from the landing bay... "Mara?"

"Hmm?" Mara looked up and saw him gesture downward. "Don't mind her. She's clingy."

"Clingy?"

"It's a thing. Hers, specifically."

Karrde glanced at Luke with raised eyebrows and Luke shook his head. Ah... not something he really needed to ask about. In a way, it made him glad to know that Dark Star was on the case. "So..."

"You're invited," Mara told him suddenly as she put the datapad down.

"To what?"

"Our wedding," Mara said as she smiled at the surprise in Karrde's eyes. "I wanted to tell you in person, not over the comm."

Karrde nodded. "Have you two set a date?" He felt imbecilic for asking... it had been all over the holocomm channels for weeks.

"Yes," Luke told him. "When we get back to Coruscant after the run... a week or so after."

~*~*~*~

They prepared to leave, Karrde pulled Mara aside to talk to her. "How are you?"

Mara looked at him, wanting to break out of his grip. This was the man who had become more than an employer to her, almost a second father. She couldn't lie to him. He'd know if she did. "Better all the while."

Karrde seemed to take that answer and mull over it, though his face stayed neutral. "Be careful out there. All three of you."

"By three, you mean my constant shadow?"

"Yes, Mara."

Mara glanced away to find Luke waiting by the boarding ramp, then looked Karrde square in the eyes. "We will."

"You mean that?" When she rolled her eyes at him, Karrde released her arm, feeling better about having asked her to do this in the first place. Watching her, and Dark Star, and the Jedi Master board the Jade's Fire, he smiled. They'd be fine.

~*~*~*~

Moira slowly packed a bag, wondering if she even really needed to. It wasn't as if she knew a thing besides what she kept seeing in her sleep and in waking dreams, after all.

What kind of help could she provide, anyway? These were people she knew, yes, but it had been thirty or so years since she'd last seen or heard from them. So much had changed in that time... she had changed. The galaxy had changed.

Did it matter if she packed a bag?

Sighing, Moira stood up and looked around the room. Seeing the box with the beacon call perched on top of it, lit up like a holiday tree at Solstice time, she shook her head. On the dresser next to the beacon call on all sides were holos... family. Her son, her parents... her husband.

She skirted around the bed to get a closer look, and frowned as her resolve hardened into an almost palpable thing. Maybe she didn't need to pack a bag, but on the off chance that it was needed, that was what she was going to do.

Taking some more clothes out of the dresser, Moira returned to packing.

After all, it never hurt to be prepared for the unknown.

~*~*~*~

Elsie was sitting on the floor in the Wave Runner's small lounge when someone came in and sat beside her. "Hi."

"Hi, yourself," her companion said playfully.

Elsie glanced up and saw Ariel's welcoming smile. "How's Eric?"

"Doing wonderfully, thank you... How is Greenland?"

"My dog?" Elsie looked at her in confusion.

Ariel sighed and leaned back against the wall. "No... Wait. You named your dog Greenland?"

"Yes. Why?"

Ariel shrugged. "No reason... Okay, I'm sorry, Elsie. We never talk enough face to face, and... well, how are you? Really, I mean."

Elsie looked at her for a very long moment, and then looked away. "Some days... I don't know. Right now, I'm fine, but... well... it's touch and go. I almost wish I'd told her no more forcefully, but shying away from a problem will only make it worse." She was surprised when Ariel pulled her into a comforting hug.

"You're not alone, Elsie. Remember that, okay?"

Elsie nodded, grateful for the comfort. "Thanks, Ariel... How'd you end up on this mission, anyway?"

"I wasn't on medical leave." Ariel paused, and then rolled her eyes at Elsie's incredulous expression. "That was the reason that half the team had for saying no. According to Ranko, though... Leah said no because she hates snow. I still don't understand what that has to do with this mission."

"I can explain that one," Elsie said, after a moment of thought. "We had a mission that involved a blizzard in Alaska once. Was rather fun, really. Lillian got to use her power to freeze things with abandon and Emanee rounded up a polar bear."

Ariel laughed. "One of those had to be there things, huh?"

"Yeah, it kinda was."

They sat in silence for a minute before Chris entered the lounge and noticed the two of them sitting on the floor, Ariel's arm still around Elsie. He stared for a moment. That was so not like them. "Um... Ranko wants to have a strategy meeting."

"Tell her that she can bring the meeting in here, because I'm not moving until my senses calm down," Elsie told him succinctly.

Chris's eyes narrowed at that, and he looked at Ariel. "Can you go tell Ranko to have the meeting in here?"

Ariel nodded and levered herself off the floor. "Will do. Remember what I said, Dusty."

"Always." She watched the woman leave, and then looked at her husband. "What?"

"You said that you were okay," Chris said as he moved to sit in front of her. "Why are your senses jangling?"

Elsie looked at him coldly. "We were just on a planet where numerous people died in battle and you ask me that? Jeeze, Chris, get with the program."

Chris winced. "Sorry."

Elsie shook her head, knowing that he'd forgotten. Then she turned a serious gaze on him. "When we get home, I'm requesting to be put back on active duty."

Chris blinked in surprise. "What? Why?"

"Because I'm rusty and my dust sense shouldn't go haywire in a battle zone like it did today. And we can't hide out in Greenland forever, you know. It was great for a while, but..." She shrugged, leaned against the wall, and took a deep cleansing breath.

Chris nodded slowly. "If you're sure."

"I am."

"Then it's fine with me. We are a team, wife. Where you go, I go."

Elsie smiled and reached her hand out. "Love you."

Chris took her hand in his and held it firmly. "And I, you. Forever."

"Is this a private moment, or can anyone join in?" Ariel asked from the entryway as she led her teammates into the lounge.

"We're good, Ariel, thanks for asking," Chris muttered. He didn't take his eyes off his wife. "Wow. That's a lot of backlash."

"Not really. That's nothing, compared to down on that planet." Elsie looked toward Ranko for a moment. "Ranko?"

"Yeah?"

"Do we have to go back to Hoth when we're done?"

Ranko considered that for a moment before nodding. "Yes, unfortunately. It's the best hiding place for the Wave Runner."

"Darn."

~*~*~*~

Mara sat in the cockpit of the Jade's Fire and watched the molted sky of hyperspace, and let out a sigh. For some reason, her danger sense was tingling. It was elusive, the knowledge beyond her grasp, but definitely there.

Hands on her shoulders made Mara startle and jump a little. "Easy. Just me."

"Just you?"

"Yes. Just me."

Mara relaxed into his hands as Luke kneaded her shoulders, content to let him soothe her nerves as only he could. "Ummmm... keep doing that."

"You're awfully tense, you know. Anything you want to talk about?"

"Just a feeling. As if I'm missing something important," she said as she turned her head and looked up at him. "It's probably nothing."

Luke didn't seem convinced. "Probably," he echoed.

She considered him for a moment before turning back to look out the viewport. "Right..."

"Where is our chaperone?"

Mara laughed under her breath. "Taking a nap under the console at my feet. So no funny stuff."

"What funny stuff," Luke teased her as he kneaded one particularly bad knot in her shoulder. "There is funny stuff to do?"

"Lots."

"We'll be talking about that later, I suppose..."

"Who says we need to talk about it?"

"We are right now."

"Funny man."

"Am not."

"Are too," Mara said as she lapsed into silence and stared out the viewport some more. That elusive feeling wasn't going away. If anything, it had gotten stronger. "Maybe we should drop out of hyperdrive for a bit. Leia told you to check in regularly, right?"

Luke frowned at that suggestion. "She did, but I commed her just after we left the Kild Karrde."

"That was a couple hours ago."

"It was."

She turned her head to look at him again. "And?"

Luke considered her serious expression for several moments and nodded slowly. He could feel it, too. Probably because she did. "You're right. No harm in checking in again."

~*~*~*~

In an office within the senate building on Coruscant, Leia was taking five minutes to relax when the comm beeped at her. Sighing, she reached over to press the button to answer it. "This is Chief of State Organa-Solo..."

"Leia, you don't have to introduce yourself formally to me," Luke told her with a grin.

Leia blinked for a moment, surprised that he was calling again so soon. "Is something wrong?"

"No, you just told me to check in frequently. So we are."

Leia laughed at that explanation. "Ah."

"How are the children and how are you and Han?"

"Same as we were a few hours ago, Luke. We're all fine here."

"That's good."

"Luke?"

"Yes?"

"Twice in one day is a little much."

"You said frequently."

"Within reason."

He smiled. "Tomorrow, then?"

"Yes. Tomorrow."

Luke nodded and the screen went blank, leaving Leia to turn back to her stack of flimsies with a smile. It was good to know they cared enough to comm again to let her know things were fine.

With those thoughts, Leia returned to working on that speech she'd been putting off for too long. Smiling.

~*~*~*~

In two different hemispheres on Naboo, three women and one man are on edge, though none know why.

The feeling has built gradually over the past week or so, and even now the feeling is elusive. As if there was a danger but it is not yet clear.

On Naboo, under the surface, there is a concern.

On Naboo, life goes on, though three women and a man are distracted.

~*~*~*~

Elsie tapped Dawn on the shoulder after Ranko teleported away to get the person who had activated the beacon. "I think I know how we can get more answers."

"Elsie, you're jangling and you're fresh off..." Dawn trailed off when Elsie glared at her. "I'm not going to win this argument, am I?"

"No. Don't you feel it?"

"Hard not to, Dusty."

"Then what say we live up to our nicknames and all the teasing and meditate a little?" Elsie shrugged. "Worse comes to worse, Chris will have a fit because he knows I was thrown by Hoth's graveyard."

"Or you'll end up screaming."

"Dawn, Saigon was kind of an accident, a building had exploded and left spiritual residue, and I was pregnant that time. Let it go." Elsie folded her arms and waited while Dawn took a deep breath and nodded.

They found a nice quiet place and began to meditate. Elsie felt Dawn open up her senses wide and did the same... and that's when they both saw big, huge enemy ships they didn't recognize, weapons primed, and a planet getting battered.

Nearly falling down from the shock, Elsie opened her eyes to find Dawn staring back at her. As one, they said one word: "Lamaredd."

~*~*~*~

Moira stared at the person standing on her doorstep. "Ranko?"

Ranko, for her part, appeared rather perturbed. "Moira, the next time you sound the beacon call, you had better actually be on Hoth."

"Huh?"

"That's where our ship was." Ranko glanced at her watch. "I'm giving you ten minutes to pack, if you haven't already."

"I'm really confused."

"Good. Be confused while you pack."

"How many years has it been for you? You don't look a day over twenty-five."

Ranko rolled her eyes. "Really, Moira. Go pack, already. I'll explain that later."

Moira closed the door and Ranko stood there, tapping her foot impatiently. Two minutes went by, and then the door opened again. Moira smiled at the semi-surprised expression on the other woman's face. "I knew you'd be coming, so I packed yesterday." She stepped out onto the porch and closed the door behind herself.

"Ah..." Ranko grabbed onto Moira's arm, and in a red flash of light, they disappeared.

Moira was startled at the sudden change in location, and gazed, wide-eyed, around at the Wave Runner's lounge area. "Wha?"

Ranko smiled. "Welcome aboard... So, what required me to scramble?"

"I've been having dreams. Force dreams. They... weren't good."

"How so?"

"I can answer that," Elsie said from the doorway. "Somewhere near the tail end of the Corellian Run, an invasion has started. Or will at any time." She frowned a moment. "It's kinda fuzzy, but that's the gist of it... Dawn and I have set a course for a planet called Lamaredd, at any rate. Hopefully, we'll get there just in time."

Moira studied the newcomer, then looked at Ranko. "She wasn't with you before. Is she Jedi?"

"No, ma'am, I'm not." Elsie smiled and held out her hand. "Elsie McCain, Dust Wave Ranger, Special Investigation Division."

Moira shook the proferred hand firmly. "Moira Melyan, CorSec, Missing Persons."

"Pleased to meet you." Elsie frowned a moment, then smirked. "You had a conversation with your son recently about a wedding invitation?"

Moira stared at her. "Well, yes. I did. Why?"

"Did you know that you were calling us in to help the bride and groom?"

"What?"

Elsie let their hands drop and continued to smile. "You asked if I was Jedi. I'm not. Just proving it."

Moira thought back to the vision-dream she'd had that had caused her to activate the signal device. That couple... "You can't mean what I think you mean."

"Of course I can." Elsie threw one more smile, then left the lounge.

Moira turned to look at Ranko. "Does she do that a lot?"

Ranko shook her head. "No, not usually. I'm surprised she did that, actually."

"You said you were going to explain some things?"

"Right. Well, it's like this..."

Ranko spent the next hour explaining things.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: The only reason this is NOT being crosslisted as a Power Rangers Crossover is because none of them are cannon characters.


	17. Chapter 17

Four days into the trip, and the feeling of unease hadn't gone away. It was starting to make her anxious, really. At the sound of a beep, Mara glanced away from the datapad she was reading to look at the status board. Seeing that they were minutes away from coming out of hyperspace, she set the padd down and went to the cockpit.

Mara was about to sit down when she realized that Dark Star was curled up in the pilot seat. Mara shook her head, amused, and picked the feline up. Then she sat down and prepared to drop the ship out of hyperspace.

As the ship dropped out of hyperspace, her danger sense flared. Mara glanced at the sensor panel out of reflex, then looked out the view port. She blinked and did a double take. "What are those?"

"What are what?" Luke asked from the co-pilot seat. He turned and looked out the view port, then proceeded to stare at the odd-looking ships currently in orbit around Lamaredd. "Oh. I don't know."

Mara glanced at the sensors again and frowned. "Whatever they are, they're reading as organic."

"Is that shrapnel and debris floating out there?"

"Looks like it." Mara turned around and began setting the navicomputer. "Whatever those are, I'm not waiting around to find out."

"Maybe we should see if anyone needs assistance?"

Mara snorted. "No, farmboy. The longer we stay, the more danger we're in. And the Force is saying there is danger here."

"You're... right. Let's go."

An alarm sounded, drawing Mara's attention away from the navicomputer. Looking out the view port, she saw three of the oddly shaped ships coming toward them on an attack vector. Frowning, Mara switched modes and turned the Jade's Fire on its tail fins in a sharp turn. "No time for that."

"Hmm?" Luke asked as he looked up from the copilot console and saw what she meant. "Oh."

Mara gritted her teeth and glanced at him. "I'll dodge them, you go shoot."

"Right." Luke left the cockpit and Mara concentrated on evading three ships at once.

The ship rocked as a shot hit it, and Mara started to slowly get upset. "No... Luke? You in?"

"Yes," his calming voice echoed through the cockpit. "Swing around so I can get a better shot."

She complied, swinging the ship around as requested. One of those ships disappeared in a hail of turbolaser fire. "The rest of them won't be that easy."

"No... this is odd."

"What is?" Mara glanced at the sensors and frowned again. There were still three out there. Where had that one come from? As another blast rocked the ship, she cursed and threw it into a dive to avoid the next one.

"I can't feel anything out there." He sounded really confused. "But that doesn't make any sense."

"We'll figure it out later, farmboy!" she yelled back at him. "Provided we get out of this!"

In the gun turret, Luke blinked as he felt a wave of panic roll over him through the Force. "Mara?"

"I'm fine!" Everything in her voice tone said otherwise. The ship rocked again, and Luke shook his head, to clear it. They'd talk about it later, if there was a later.

~*~*~*~

Coming out of hyperspace on the other side of the system, well out of range, Mara sighed, took stock of the Jade's Fire's damaged systems, and shook her head. "It's no use."

"What do you mean?" Luke asked as he came up beside her, with a spooked Dark Star in his arms.

"We're leaking air, the hull's breached, and power is failing. Even if we could go back into hyperspace, we wouldn't survive the trip." Mara sighed in defeat. "We're as good as dead."

"Oh Mara," Luke let Dark Star down, and took her in his arms. "There's hope. I feel it."

"Ever the optimist, aren't you?"

"Someone has to be."

~*~*~*~

The Wave Runner dropped out of hyperspace almost on top of a badly damaged ship, and Peter swore like a sailor as he piloted the ship away from it in a sharp vector. He took a moment to steady his nerves. "That the one?"

Elsie nodded from the copilot seat. "That's it."

"Peter!" Ranko admonished from the science console at the rear of the control cabin. "What would our children say?"

"Probably the same thing," Peter muttered as he swung the Wave Runner around and headed back to the other ship. "Chris? What do the sensors say?"

There was a pause, and then Chris responded. "Taken on heavy damage, life support failing... looks like there is two big life signs and a smaller one that could be anything."

Ranko turned and considered the options. "All right. Elsie and Chris? You're on rescue with Dawn. Have at it." Elsie and Chris left the control cabin quickly, and Ranko moved to the sensor station.

"You could have gone, too," Peter told her as he manuevered the Wave Runner as close as he could to the other ship.

"Not really."

"What if they need medical attention?"

"Let me worry about that, darling."

"Right."

~*~*~*~*~

Dust Wave looked around the darkened corridor with unease. "I don't like this. It's too quiet in here."

Echo Wave chuckled. "That it is. You picking up anything?"

"That way." She pointed in the direction of an open hatchway. "The air is so thin here."

"And getting thinner by the minute, too," Gray Wave pointed out.

They approached the hatchway and looked in. Seeing a man and a woman passed out on the deck didn't surprise them. The air was, after all, too thin to stay conscious.

Dust Wave entered, bent down, and found a pulse on each one. "They're alive." Touching the woman, she winced at the psychic feedback. "Ow!"

"Elsie?" Echo Wave came forward and pulled her away, letting Gray Wave by to deal with the two unconscious people.

"Lightning, this is Gypsy. Three to teleport, medical priority one." There was a pause, and then Gray Wave and the two unconscious persons disappeared in a flash of light.

"Are you all right?" Echo Wave helped her up, and he could tell that she was shaken by her posture.

Dust Wave shook her hand and nodded. "Saw that before I made contact, should have been prepared for it." She glanced around the control cabin and noticed something black underneath a console. "Strange. What is that?"

"Huh?" Echo Wave turned and looked where she was pointing. "Oh." He bent down for a better view, frowned, and picked it up. "This appears to be a cat."

Dust Wave stared at the small bundle in his arms. "Let me see... oh. You're right... Lightning?"

[Yes, Dusty?]

"Two people and one cat to teleport."

Pause... [Did you just say "cat?"]

"Yes."

[Okay...]

They disappeared in a flash of light.

~*~*~*~

Ranko was mystified when she heard Melinda curse in frustration as she passed her quarters on the way to the medical area. "Mel?"

"I wanted to listen to something from home, but all that's here is C.W. McCall! Did you tell Aniya to put tribute week protocol in this thing or something?"

"No..." Ranko said slowly as she entered to look at the screen over Melinda's shoulder. "Far as I know, she copied the runabout's files... oh. Dang it. Sorry, Mel." She pressed some buttons to make the music registry appear. "Let's see... we have tribute week and Manhiem Steamroller available right now. The rest will be active day after tomorrow."

"Isn't there any way to override the darn thing?"

"Look at it this way: You've gotten out of a virus locking your music files up for a week straight every year since 2037." Ranko smiled as Melinda rolled her eyes. "I gotta go check on the people that we just rescued, so later, okay?"

"Yeah." Melinda watched her go, and then turned back to contemplate the screen again. "Oh, why not?"

A second later, strains of "Around The World With The Rubber Duck" filled the air.

~*~*~*~*~

Ranko entered the medical bay and glanced around. She noticed that Elsie was still in armor, sans helmet, staying as far as she could get from the people and concentrating on what appeared to be a... cat? Shaking her head in resignation, Ranko joined Dawn by the medical beds. "Okay. Tell me what you got."

Dawn motioned to the oxygen masks. "Treating for oxygen deprivation, Dr. Johnson. That's about all I could think of, since they weren't bleeding."

Ranko checked behind the man's ears, then pulled out a pocket light and shined it in his eyes. "Dawn, you don't have to use my title like that... No battle's sign, eyes aren't dilated..." She moved to the woman and repeated the same procedure. "Negative here, too. Good, good."

"Of course I do. You're the acting medical personnel." Dawn glanced over at Elsie, then shrugged.

Ranko noticed the shrug. "Is she still in armor for a reason?"

"Got a bad shock when we were over on that ship. Probably doesn't want to power down just yet or something."

"How bad?" Ranko concentrated on taking the rest of the vitals routine, then smiled. "Well, they check out, even if they're still out cold. Dawn?"

"Bad enough."

The tone of that reply made Ranko frown as she went over to Elsie. "You need a break?"

"No," Elsie said tightly as she used her rudimentary veterinary skills that she'd learned from her mom to check the cat over. At Ranko's hand on her arm, she startled. "I'm fine, Ranko."

"Go take a breather and get out of your armor. Now. I'll take care of the little guy." Ranko held her gaze until Elsie nodded and left the room. She looked down at the animal, noticed that it appeared to be just asleep, and smiled. Giving it a pet or two, Ranko turned back to consider her two patients.

Something about the man had struck her, and looking at him again, she was struck by a sense of familiarity. "Dawn?"

"Yes?"

"Does he look like Mark Hamill to you?"

Dawn glanced over from the datapad she was reading, considered him a moment, went back to reading the datapad, then did a classic double take. "Oh, you're right. He does. How weird."

"Not that weird. What's weird is that you and Elsie led us straight to them."

"Can't argue with that."

~*~*~*~

Elsie walked back into the medical bay right as the cat woke up and was about to jump down from the medical bed. "Oh no you don't." She caught the animal and gathered her into her arms as it leveled a glare at her as only a cat could manage. "No, little one. What? You were out a second ago." Elsie carried the feline over to the bed that the woman was laying on and set her down. "There you go." She glanced at Ranko. "I'm not certain, but I think her name is Star or Darky or something..."

"Or something?"

Elsie shrugged. "Hard to tell with animals."

"Ah."

Dark Star walked the length of the bed around Mara, sniffing and looking, before finally settling in at her knee and curling up to wait, fully satisfied that her person was fine.

Ranko shook her head amusedly. "I guess we know whose she is."

"Seems that way," Elsie muttered.

They were startled when Mara suddenly came to with a shriek. "No!"

Ranko turned and looked at Elsie. "Is that why you were having a problem?" Elsie nodded wordlessly, her eyes wide. "Wonderful." Ranko got in front of Mara, who was hyperventalating, and put her hands up in a surrendering posistion. "It's all right, ma'am. We're not going to hurt you here. You're safe."

Mara took several deep, cleansing breaths, looked around at the three women, and noticed that Luke was watching her from under half-closed eyelids. "Safe?"

"Yes."

"You're sure?"

"No one is going to be shooting at you here... unless you ask us to, or you manage to annoy someone that badly, which I don't see happening, do you?"

Mara stared at her. "Huh? Who are you people?"

"I'd like to know that, too," Luke muttered as he sat up and removed the oxygen mask from his face.

Dawn was staring at Ranko, jaw hanging open in shock. "I can't believe you just said that."

"Dawn, now's not the time for a lecture."

"But still!"

They were interrupted by Moira entering the medical bay with a confused expression on her face. "Melinda's listening to the strangest music. Something about a convoy and roses for mama..." She trailed off as she noticed that two people were looking at her with varying degrees of amusement, one was staring at the other, and the two people sitting on the medical beds were giving off confusion in waves. "Oh. Hi."

"Good to know that I don't have to warn my dad that Mel may want to kill him for instituting Tribute Week protocol," Ranko muttered, and then turned her attention to Mara. "You first, ma'am."

"Mara Jade."

Ranko raised an eyebrow at Luke. "And you?"

"Luke Skywalker." He watched as all three women took on expressions of shock at once. "Uh..."

Dawn was the first to find her voice."No way! Really?"

"Yes."

Mara turned and considered him. "Your fame precedes you, I see."

"I know this is going to seem a bit strange," Ranko said suddenly, pulling a pad of paper from thin air, "...but can I have your autograph?"

Moira blinked at that. "Ranko?"

"What?" The expression on Moira's face brought her back down to reality, and Ranko blushed. "Oh. Right... sorry about that. Getting back to the subject at hand... my name is Ranko, this is Dawn, she's Elsie, and that is Moira. How are you feeling?"

"Fine." Luke turned to Mara. "Mara?"

"Better... What were those things, anyway?"

"Those ships you ran into?" Elsie asked.

"Yes. Those."

Ranko was about to say something when she stopped, cocked her head, and listened. "I'm sorry, Susan. Could you say that again? ...what? You're sure? ...So not only are they early, but they're time-misplaced and... Uh-huh... And that helps us get rid of them how?" She paused. "You're not serious. Tell me you're not... We can't do that, Sue. You know we can't... Susan!"

Luke watched as Ranko stalked out of the medical bay, muttering in a language he'd never heard before. "What was that about?"

Dawn, for her part, was somewhat more composed that her teammate. "The ships you were attacked by... They're called Yuzhan Vong."

"They were what?"

"Who was she talking to?" Mara asked carefully.

"A teammate who stayed behind to monitor the mission," Elsie explained. "Are you really all right?"

"Yes," Mara stressed, glaring at her before looking away. Absently, she petted Dark Star, who raised her head at the contact. "Hi, Dark Star."

"Ah-hah!" Elsie crowed. "I was right!" She smiled at Moira and Dawn. "Well I was..."

Ranko came back into the medical bay just then, still upset and appearing a fair bit annoyed.

"How bad?" Dawn asked.

"Well, we can do one of three things: Go home and pretend we didn't walk in on the beginnings of a time-misplaced invasion, fight them here and now, or try to get them to leave peacefully."

"They won't leave peacefully," Moira said quietly. "My visions pretty much spelled that out."

"And we can't leave," Dawn muttered. "Not now. We're involved."

"Which means we pull out the whammy. Again."

Moira hesitated, then looked at Ranko funny. "Please explain to me the scientific nature of 'the whammy.'"

"I've been known to cycle through every language I know afterward," Ranko said dryly.

"Or talk like an electric rodent," Dawn teased. "Good thing we brought the heavy hitters, huh?"

Ranko sighed. "Yeah... Susan? Call Miranda in... Yes, I'm serious. She can finish her honeymoon later... and Vincent? You're taking over for Sue. Hope you're up to typing with one arm... Good. I'm glad."

"Is that wise?" Elsie asked. "Sue's just come off a... not good event and she's on maternity leave."

"She's had adequate recovery time, and she'll be fine."

"I'm confused," Luke said brightly. "Who are the Vong and what are you going to do, and who are you people?"

Dawn handed her datapad to him. "These are the Vong. As for who we are... well..."

"We're Wave Rangers, Mr. Skywalker," Ranko said by way of explanation. "Okay, Moira's not a Wave Ranger, but the rest of us are."

"What's a Wave Ranger?" Mara asked.

Moira shook her head. "You don't want her to answer that right now. Really. You don't."

"What? You think it'd be too much for them?" Ranko teased her playfully.

"Yes."

"How is my ship?" Mara asked suddenly.

"Intact," Elsie told her.

"And?"

"You were on it. You tell me." Elsie held her gaze until Mara looked away. "Ranko, I think pulling out all the stops would be a bad idea."

"Why? Because we've not done it since the Colmeri invaded, or because we've never done it at high intensity with missing team members before?"

"Both... and calling in Miranda? Do the Vong really deserve concussions that badly?"

"After reading what was on that pad, I really think they do," Dawn said sincerely.

"Here, here," Ranko grinned.

"Fine. As long as we're calling people in, what about Whuki and Rala?"

"No."

"Why not?"

At the expression Ranko threw her way, Elsie sobered. "Right. Never mind... Allan?"

"Mom would kill me if I got him killed in action. One sibling KIA a century, all right?"

"Susan wasn't killed in action, you know."

"Don't give me technicalities."

"Is Susan a ghost?" Mara wondered.

"No, and technically she didn't die either, so that one shouldn't count."

"Elsie! You were there!"

"Ten minutes to an hour after the fact and she was breathing then. Need I remind you of the charred and cripsy cult members?"

"No... Cole?"

"Sala would be madder than your mom... Nathan?"

"Amy would be distracted. That's not a good thing. She get's arrested by shapeshifters and into trouble just fine on her own."

"John?"

"He'd only come if Leah did."

"Travis?"

"Same problem and I'd rather not listen to flirting over the comlink. He and Rose still flirt with wild abandon given half the chance."

"Lillian?"

"You're determinded to name everybody aren't you?"

"Yes. Davran?"

"No on either one, even though I'd love to see Lill freeze the Vong solid with a look."

Elsie looked at her funny. "Since when can Lill do that?"

"I'm exaggerating," Ranko told her. "Would be nice if she could, though."

"Hmmm... Ann?"

"Elsie, we're already calling Miranda off her honeymoon. You really want to call Ann off her leave?"

"Worked for Jessica."

"Jess was eight months pregnant and wanted to patrol. There's a difference. And besides... how was I to know that she was about to go into labor if she didn't know it herself?"

"Maybe the way she was walking?"

Ranko snorted, then noticed that three people were staring at them, while Dawn rolled her eyes. "Oh, don't mind us. We're always like this whenever we're about to do another stupid thing."

"We'll take your word for it," Luke said smoothly as he stood up and moved to Mara's side. "Mara…"

Mara glanced at him, then looked away. "Not now."

"But…" He blinked when she got off the bed and stalked out of the medical area in one smooth motion. Luke was about to follow her when Elsie stopped him. "What?"

"Let me handle it, all right? You've done so much for her and been there for everything, and…" Elsie shrugged at his expression. "Just this once, all right?"

Luke looked at the women surrounding him and wanted to turn the offer down, but right then, he just wanted to be the hero and rush after her. "I don't see how you're going to help, ma'am."

"It's Elsie, Master Skywalker… and some things, only a woman can do." She smiled at him and looked at Ranko. "If you wanted to do an awake exam? Now's your chance."

Ranko laughed. "Thanks."

~*~*~*~

Elsie followed her senses to the lounge, where she knew someone needed a talk. There, she found Mara, sitting in a chair and looking at the floor, lost in her thoughts. Elsie sat down in a chair close to her and didn't say a word.

"I'm fine," Mara said without looking up, her voice uneven.

"Say it long enough, you might even begin to believe it... and you can't lie to me. I can see the pain you still feel, whether it be emotional or otherwise."

Mara glanced up and saw the serious expression on the other woman's face. "See it?"

"Unfortunately." She held Mara's gaze for a moment, then cocked her head to one side. "How long have you been out of the hospital?"

Mara stared at her. "What? How do you know that?"

"You show signs of physical and mental trauma that lasted a long time. It's in the way you walk, and part of it was how you woke up in our medbay. You... weren't exactly calm."

"I... it's been two months."

"Not very long, then."

"No." Mara's gaze settle back down to the floor, unable to continue making eye contact. "I shouldn't have panicked like that."

"You're being too hard on yourself," an unfamiliar female voice said from the hatchway. "To panic is to be human."

Mara blinked and looked to see a woman in a black and orange jumpsuit leaning against the wall nonchalantly. "Who are you?"

"Ms. Jade, this is Susan," Elsie introduced them. "You and she have a lot in common."

"Huh?"

"Go find Chris, Dusty. I can take it from here." Susan smiled comfortingly as she crossed the room to sit next to Mara in the chair that Elsie had vacated.

"You're sure?"

"Very."

"Okay." Elsie smiled once at Mara, then left.

Mara stared after her. "That's the first time I've seen a smile from her."

"That's because Elsie... well, if someone's radiating mental pain or something, it puts her in a bad mood. And playing poker with her is impossible. She wins." Susan smiled at Mara's surprised expression. "Weren't expecting that, huh?"

"Not exactly, no. So what is this thing we have in common?"

"I was ambushed while on patrol in a wild zone with a fellow teammate three years ago. It... wasn't good."

"I'm not sure I understand."

"The pain fades, given enough time. You will heal, you just can't expect yourself to be totally together right out the blocks. During the first sim session I had afterward... well, I managed to destroy a whole simulated army by myself, but before that, I panicked so bad that Ranko had to stop the sim... Like I said, it takes time."

"Doesn't make it any easier."

"No."

"Wait... a simulated army?"

Susan shrugged. "I'm not allowed to spar with my teammates if I'm unstable due to other factors, thus the sims."

"Oh... They mentioned something about you having been killed or something like that?"

Susan sighed ruefully. "Have to remember to tell Jill to talk to Ranko when we get home, dang it. That was thirty years ago."

Mara blinked in surprise. "Now I'm really confused."

"It's a long story, but basically... well, it wasn't permanent. It's also not important right now."

"But..." Mara took in the expression that Susan threw her way, and nodded. "Right."

Susan stood up and considered her a moment. "It's all right to let yourself feel it, you know. Avoiding the emotions and the pain will only make it worse when it finally crashes down around you."

"But I'm not avoiding... what?"

"You can't lie to someone who's been there and done that." Susan smiled once more, then left Mara alone to her thoughts.

Mara sat there for a long while.

~*~*~*~

Luke entered the lounge after sitting in on a strategy session with the Rangers to find Mara standing at a viewport. "We need to talk."

"I know," Mara said distantly.

He put a hand on her arm and she turned to face him. "Are you all right?"

Mara nodded slowly. "A little at a time, yes. Are you?"

"Me?" They looked each other in the eyes, before he nodded. "Yes."

"I love you, farmboy." She put her arms around his neck and kissed him. "It's just..."

"This whole situation is weird?"

"That's one way of putting it... how was the strategy session?"

The expression on his face at that question made her laugh.


	18. Chapter 18

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: It was requested of me before, so am giving the warning... this warning has to do with the mental process of realizing someone is an actual person and coffee spillage. Everyone warned? Not drinking coffee or anything else hot while reading? Okay, then. Enjoy. :)

A little earlier...

"I hate to play devil's advocate here, but... what about the Vong?" Melinda glanced around the group and sighed at the blank looks they were directing her way. "They're people too, even if they are trying to take over the universe and uproot a culture."

"Mel has a point," Susan spoke up, startling everyone. "Not saying I totally agree, but she does have a point."

"You've been living on Planet Bob too long, Mel," Amy said, teasing her a little. "And it's the same thing as what you'd do if the Drej attacked."

"Make it rain?" Melinda smirked as Amy rolled her eyes. "And we don't have to destroy them. We can just send Ranko and Peter in and they can give the Vong diabetic poisoning by being insufferably cute."

"Mel, if I'd wanted to do that, Rose and Travis would be here."

"Just a thought."

"Uh-huh."

"What about the Darksaber? We could steal it."

Ranko stared at Dawn for a very long moment, then turned to Susan. "That incident happen yet?"

"Not that I'm aware of." Susan turned to Luke, who was sitting in on the meeting. "Any incidents with Hutts lately?"

"No... why?"

"Callista?"

"Who?"

"The Eye of Palpatine?"

Luke shook his head. "Never heard of it... Why?"

"The Sun Crusher?"

"Yes."

"Is it destroyed?"

"Yes. Why are you asking about all this?"

"Trying to understand your time line is all."

"Now I'm confused. Time line?"

"It's quite simple, Mr. Skywalker. We need to know what there is handy, and if the Death Star prototype and the Sun Crusher have been destroyed, and the Darksaber hasn't been created yet, that leaves us very little to work with besides ourselves."

"We didn't see much when we were at Hoth," Dawn spoke up. "But then, we weren't looking for it... Wait. You haven't messed with The Eye?" The blank expression was answer enough. "Would that work, Ranko?"

"Only if we could reprogram it, and-"

"I could try," Susan interrupted with a slight smile. "How hard could it be? Instead of going after Jedi, it'd go after Vong."

"That's... actually not bad." Ranko glanced at Luke. "Exar Kun?"

"Last year... How do you know all this?"

"Pop culture class," Dawn told him. "Well, Ranko and Peter are fans, but the rest of us had it as an elective."

Luke blinked. "What?"

Ranko took pity on him. "It's why I wanted your autograph earlier."

"Oh."

"We don't actually have to reprogram The Eye," Peter said, bring the subject back to where it needed to be. "All we'd need to do is lure them with it."

"And for that, we need to be able to move it," Chris pointed out.

"True." Peter looked at Susan. "You're sure you could do it?"

"Well, no, but it's worth a try isn't it? At the very least, I'd trip something, at the most, we destroy it, problem solved. Kill two birds with one stone."

"And Callista?" Ranko asked, curious.

"She'd probably help."

"Right..."

"Who is Callista?" Luke wondered.

The question was met with utter silence before Melinda turned to him and shook her head. "Before your time."

"And yet you are talking about her like I should know who she is."

"Another time, another place, yeah, you probably would have." Melinda shrugged. "But that's neither here nor there."

Luke stood up, glanced around, shook his head, and left the room.

"Needed more tact, didn't we?" Elsie asked.

"Some," Melinda answered. She glanced at Ranko. "Next time, hmmm?"

Ranko nodded. "If there is one... Sue?"

"Yeah?"

"We are not doing that. No way." Ranko looked around at her team, then looked at Savage. "You remember the war, right?"

"Probably more than you do. Why?" Savage took in what Ranko was implying and started shaking her head. "No."

"Why not? It worked, didn't it?"

"Just because it worked on a total of five occasions, doesn't mean it was a good idea. Not only was it dangerous as a sand tiger in heat, but we also were nearly killed every time."

"What are you talking about?" Miranda asked, puzzled. "And which war?"

"That's what I'd like to know," Moira muttered.

"Which one do you think?" Savage retorted, then pointed at Ranko. "She was eight!"

"Very funny, Savage. You were fourteen, if I recall correctly."

"Oh, that war." Miranda turned to Peter. "Did we miss out on a lot?"

"Only in the sense that you missed Ranko acting like an eight year old and Allan babysitting her with John Wayne movies. Otherwise, no." Ranko punched him playfully on the arm. "Ow!"

"When we get home you're helping me with my thesis, Mr Smarty Pants."

Susan rolled her eyes at them. "Can we not do this? Explain the plan, already."

"Well, it was like this..."

 

Now...

 

"That bad?"

"Well... sort of." Luke shrugged helplessly. "They seem to know a lot about recent events, or stuff that hasn't happened yet. It's weird."

They were interrupted by Ranko entering the lounge with an apologetic expression. "Sorry about that. We're having a hard time adjusting to your presence. It's one thing to know about you from media, it's entirely another to meet you in person. It won't happen again, Master Skywalker."

"Call me Luke."

"Only if you're sure. It's a familiarity that we've been trained not to use."

"Trained?"

"Military thing and you out-rank us, even if we are all older than you."

"Oh. Yes, I'm sure."

"I didn't formally introduce myself earlier." Ranko held out her hand. "Captain Ranko Matire-Johnson, United Earth Space Navy."

Luke shook her hand warily. "A pleasure, I'm sure."

"That said... we have a plan, but need some advice." She glanced at Mara with a slight smile. "From both of you."

"Why?" Mara asked.

"You have experiance that we don't and this is your galaxy, not ours. Seems only fitting that you have a hand in the plan."

Luke and Mara glanced at eachother, and Mara nodded. "All right. Lead the way."

~*~*~*~

"I remember this plan," Elsie said as Ranko led Luke and Mara into the make-shift war room and motioned for them to sit down. "I didn't like it then, either. Everyone was in therapy for weeks afterward."

"Except you," Savage pointed out.

"I got therapy after I came out of the stupid trance, Savage. Not my fault that I ended up in one."

"So... we should revise the plan so you're part of the distraction?" Amy wondered.

Elsie rolled her eyes. "No. I ended up in the trance because it was a mission requirement."

The assorted Wave Rangers all looked at Chris, who nodded. "That's true. It was required. Don't remember why, though."

"There needed to be a cone of frequency silence for the element of surprise. In order to maintain it, the three of us had to meditate. I ended up so deeply entrenched in the trance that I stayed there a while." At the memory, Elsie made a face and shook her head. "Is that going to be needed this time around, Ranko?"

"No. This is a standard bash, sneak, boom. And even if we did need it, there would be no trances. Lot's of distraction this time around, though."

"But no cars to smash and bash," Allison pointed out. "Mom loved that part."

"I'm lost here," Luke said slowly as he and Mara sat down next to Moira. "Your mother smashed a what and she fell into a... trance?"

Allison laughed. "My mother was good at providing distractions, Master Skywalker. You'd call what she smashed a land speeder, only with wheels... as for why, well you had to be there to understand."

"And I used to not have very good control on my senses," Elsie put in.

"This is true," Ariel said with a smile. "You wouldn't believe the amount of times that she'd bring a ghost to dinner with her."

"I'm never going to live that down, am I?"

"No, and you're still a ghost magnet."

"So is Dawn."

"Don't bring me into this, Elsie. I'm not the one who had the incident at the beach."

"I was five! I think I can be given a little leeway!"

"And-"

"Ahem!" Ranko interrupted. "Battle plan, remember? You two can pick on Elsie later. And Dawn? You're not exactly innocent, either, so stop it." She leveled a glare at the offenders, then tried to smile reassuringly at Luke and Mara. "I assure you we are sane. Promise."

"Reminds me a little of Rogue Squadron, actually," Luke said with a shrug. "Kind of."

Moira watched as Dark Star hopped up into Mara's lap and settled in. "I've been meaning to ask this, but where did you find a Spukamas?"

"She found me, really," Mara confided. "On a trading run to Corellia."

"Ah... she's pretty." Moira reached over and petted the feline, then smiled. "Also a bit protective, it seems."

"It was worse two months ago. She wouldn't let me out of her sight at all."

"And she was right, you know," Luke told her.

"Yes, I know." Mara looked up and saw all the smiles directed her way. "What?"

"Normalcy is a good and happy thing, is all," Amy told her.

"Right... So, about this battle plan?"

Ranko nodded. She handed a data padd to Mara, who shared it with Luke. "We're calling this: Operation Worldships Go Boom..."

"Worldships go boom?" Luke asked, surprised at the op name. "Things are going to be exploding?"

"Well... yes."

"What's a worldship?" Mara asked, looking up from the datapadd.

"Exactly what it sounds like," Amy said smoothly. "A world that's a ship."

Mara turned to look at Amy with an expression of incredulity. "I got that part, thank you."

Ranko sighed. "AJ, stop being catty."

"But it's so easy." At the stern look being directed her way, Amy rolled her eyes. "Fine... Mara, a worldship would be a living headquarters for the Vong. The information we have from Elidar's computer system is that they have more than one of the things and are massing in Wild Space not far from here for a major push. We get them there, before they make a major push and make themselves known and cause lots and lots of damage, and the problem will be taken care of."

"Mostly," Allison muttered. "There will still be some mop-up to do."

"Yes, but that part is easy."

"Right."

"Oh, that explains some of this," Mara said, then looked at Amy. "Who or what is an Elidar?"

"Our home base," Amy explained. "Home, as it were."

Mara nodded slowly and glanced over the plans, noting that people were divided into two teams. "I'm going along."

"No you're not," Ranko said automatically. She motioned for most everyone to leave the make-shift war-room, and all but five, besides Moira, Luke, and Peter, did.

Mara glared at her. "Why not? I want to help."

"She has a point, Ranko," Peter said softly. "And what could it hurt?"

"If she's going," Luke spoke up. "Then so am I."

Ranko considered the two of them for a full minute before glancing at her husband, who nodded. "All right. Give me a reason besides the fact that you want to help and I'll consider it."

"I want to pay them back."

"No," Ranko said without hesitation.

"What? Why not?"

"This isn't about revenge."

Mara looked at her funny. "I'm sorry?"

"It's about saving lives, Miss Jade. Going in bent on revenge will only get you and your team killed. Try again."

Mara hesitated, then met Ranko's gaze squarely, and answered from her heart. "I need to make it right. For me."

Ranko took that in a moment, then nodded. "All right."

"Huh?"

"That reason? That's what I was waiting for. No more, no less." Ranko glanced at Luke and noticed he was smiling slightly at Mara. "Though the two of you are going to be on separate teams for this."

"Why?"

"Different needs, different abilities. You cause havoc better than she does, and she sneaks around better that you."

Luke had to admit that she had a point there.

~*~*~*~*~

The Wave Rangers were busy sorting out their armory while Luke and Mara sat to one side and held one another.

"You know I love you, right?" Mara suddenly had to ask, not turning to look at him.

Luke slowly turned from watching Amy sharpen her twin katana and smiled down at her. "Yes, I know, Mara. I love you, too."

Mara turned her head and smiled back at him. "You're not worried, are you?"

"No." The certainty in his voice made her feel safe and she leaned into him.

"I'm glad."

Susan came over to them with two boxes and two sets of light-weight body armor. "These are for you two."

Luke frowned. "What's in the boxes?"

Susan handed the body armor to Mara and opened one of the boxes to show them. She held up a small, flat disc-shaped device. "This is a medical sensor patch…" Next was what appeared to be a tangle of wires. "…and this one goes on your ear like so…" and next after that, was a small device that appeared to be jewelry. "…and this one is a personal protective shield, for extra protection in the event of something huge."

"You want us to use all this?" Mara asked, her tone indicating that she wasn't exactly pleased.

Susan's eyes narrowed. "Yes, you get to use these things. It's required if you're coming… and don't argue with me on it, Miss Jade. It didn't work for any of my children, it certainly won't work for you."

"Oh, I wasn't going to argue about it… It just seems unnecessary. We've gone on missions without stuff like this and been fine."

"Right… and Ranko won't let you go unless you use all of it, including the shields." Susan shrugged, then stood up. "Oh, and the body armor can fit over your jump suits."

Mara watched her go, then looked at Luke, who was picking through the other box. "Anything interesting in there?"

"Yes." He held up a pair of lightsabers for her to see. "These."

Mara frowned, set the armor down, and opened the other box. In it, she found two more lightsabers. "Why would there be two for one person?"

"Because one always needs a spare at the least opportune time," Amy told them from where she was still sharpening her katana blades. "And it never hurts to have two of something." She grinned at their expressions of disbelief.

"Oh," they said in unison.

"That… actually makes sense," Mara murmured. She fingered the lightsabers a moment before turning to look at Luke with an imploring expression. "Well, Master? Do you think I'm ready?"

Luke blinked in surprise, then nodded slowly. "Yes, student, I think you're ready."

"Really?" She leaned closer to him.

He leaned in with a smile. "Really."

The kiss they shared made Amy blush.

~*~*~*~*~

On Coruscant, as the Chief of State of the New Republic is getting ready for the day ahead, she can't help but feel uneasy.

For two days now, she's been getting subtle force-nudges and images in her minds eye of her brother and his fiancé. Yesterday, she was about ready to call out the troops based on nothing more than a feeling, and then… a feeling of relief flooded through her.

She wasn't certain what was going on out there, but she wasn't worried about her brother. He had Mara with him, and together they could face anything.

Still uneasy, but a little more at ease than she had been, Leia Organa Solo began her day.

~*~*~*~

Moira smirked as Luke and Mara stared and watched the Wave Rangers go through their noisy power-up. She knew how they felt, yes, but that didn't make it any less funny.

"What in the?" Luke asked, stunned as the light show wound down.

"That was why I stopped her from explaining earlier," Moira explained quietly. "Wasn't something to drop on two people who'd just recently been unconscious."

"That explains the body armor and the personal shields," Mara murmured. She frowned at Melinda as she removed her helmet. "Pink?"

Melinda rolled her eyes. "Yes. Pink… and formal functions are heck."

"At least we don't have color withdrawal, Mel," Ranko reminded her.

"Good point."

Mara picked Dark Star up off the floor and held her close for a moment, then handed her to Moira. "Be good for Moira, Dark Star."

Moira chuckled as Dark Star tried to get out of her arms with little success. "Just go before I lose my grip… and be safe out there."

Ranko nodded, and then they teleported out, Luke and Mara in tow.

Moira let go of Dark Star right as the feline began yowling. "They'll be back, girl."

Dark Star glared up at Moira once, and then wandered off, tail in the air.

Moira shook her head, then made her way to the monitor station in the control cabin. "At least I think they will…"

~*~*~*~*~

Red Wave planted a signal beacon in the ground beside a rock, then turned to Blue Wave. "You be careful."

"Same goes for you," Blue Wave told her shortly, then Blue Team teleported away, Mara in tow.

Red Wave turned around and tilted her head to one side. "And by careful for us, he means property damage."

"And not to get killed, either," Yellow Wave said with a snort.

"But mostly property damage," Copper Wave said as she pulled out her katana. "Let's get to it, shall we?"

Red Wave motioned for Luke to stay where he was while Orange Wave moved to peek around a corner.

Orange Wave looked, and then beckoned them forward. "Amy, would you be so kind as to announce our presence?"

"Seriously?"

"Yep."

"Okay."

For a moment, Luke could have sworn that he saw copper-colored flower petals floating in the air as nothing happened.

And then Copper Wave moved into the "road" and let loose with a volley of flame and pandemonium broke loose.

Luke had no time to even be surprised as they swung into action, Red Wave in the lead.


	19. Chapter 19

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: okay… these "[ ]" marks are relay communication, and these "{{ }}" are translated words from other languages. (And it did not get a mention at the bottom last chapter, so terminology note: Anyone identified as a "Color" Wave is a uniformed Wave Ranger.)   
> Thank you to emeraldshadow and Trimaj for action advice.

As she turned and struck out at her opponent, she saw the Jedi Master fighting his share of enemy warriors and wanted to stop and just watch the grace of his movements. It was one thing to read about it or see it on a screen, entirely another to see it in person. Turning back around, Pink Wave let out a chuckle. "Is it me, or does this feel kind of corny?"

Yellow Wave ducked an amphistaff strike and lashed out with her Mirage Batons. "Which part?" she asked as she bonked one of the Vong on the head severely, knocking it out and sidestepping another one.

Pink Wave motioned to where the Jedi Master was using two lightsabers and taking on several Vong warriors. "I mean him. It's weird, but in a good way."

"Ah."

[Will you two stop jabbering and get with the plan already?] Vincent broke in, sounding perturbed.

"Fine, brother darling," Yellow Wave ducked another amphistaff, did a solid cross-cutting maneuver, and knocked that Vong off it's feet. "I hate these things."

Pink Wave swung her mallet around and bashed one upside the head. He hit the ground, out cold. "A.J. and I will cover while you drop some energy bombs, right AJ?"

"Yeah," Copper Wave muttered, having just joined them. "Is it just me or is there an endless stream of them?"

"Not just you," Yellow Wave said as she sheathed her batons and sat down. "And we're on their home turf."

[Little ones, Miranda. Make 'em too big and they'll go off too soon.]

Yellow Wave rolled her eyes in annoyance. "I know that, Vincent."

[Just reminding you.]

"Mel, he's annoying when he sits out."

"It's part of his charm."

[I heard that.]

Copper Wave chuckled as Yellow Wave snorted and began making energy bombs. "Kinda hard for you not to, Iceman."

Pink Wave gave up on using the mallet and pulled out a… battle axe? "Wait a minute… Miranda? Can I borrow your batons?"

"Why? You barely know how to use them properly."

"Mallet got boring."

Yellow Wave handed her batons off and went back to making energy bombs. "Just don't hit me, all right? Don't want or need a concussion."

[Is that wise?]

"What's hard about it?" Pink Wave turned around just in time to catch another Vong. She swung the batons like she'd seen Yellow Wave do it and stared as the Vong warrior keeled over. "Woah. No wonder you like these things."

"Just remember to hit full force and use both hands, and you got it." Yellow Wave made one last small energy bomb and cloaked it, then stood up. She had to duck. "Mel!"

"This is fun!"

[Now you'll never get those back, sister darling.]

"Oh, shut up." Yellow Wave pulled out a pair of mallets and rejoined the fray. "I want them back later, Mel."

"No prob… two mallets?"

"The better to bonk people on the head with," Copper Wave said, parrying a strike.

"Ah."

Mara stood guard with Blue Wave at the first vital node and watched as everyone else carried out the plan. "This isn't what I thought we'd be doing."

"Sounded better when we were talking about it, hmm?" Blue Wave asked her.

"Somewhat."

"Better to be bored than terrified."

Mara nodded. "True." She glanced out into the corridor, noticing again how little activity there was. "It's so…"

"Don't. Say. That."

"Huh?"

Blue Wave sighed. "It never stays that way for long. Trust me."

Mara shrugged and they lapsed into silence once more, scanning the area for threats.

~*~*~*~

Luke was providing cover with Red Wave while Orange and Gold Waves made energy bombs. "This is bad."

"Is is?" Red Wave asked as she lashed out with her sword and hooked a warrior in the chest.

Luke nodded. "I can't predict their movements."

Red Wave sighed. "Or feel them?"

"That either."

"That's because you can't."

"What?" Luke frowned over at her, and then went back to covering. He swung around in time to hit one warrior and make it go down hard.

"They don't show up in the force, Master Skywalker. Stop relying on it and just use your eyes."

Luke nodded and switched tactics. He felt a shiver and turned just in time to catch the next Vong. "Thanks."

"You two almost done?" Red Wave asked impatiently.

"Almost," Orange Wave told her. "Couple more and we'll have it whipped."

[Don't make those too potent,] Jessica advised over the comlink. [Don't want them to go off too early.]

"We know, Jess," Gold Wave muttered.

[Vincent's annoying Miranda, by the way. Something about Mel having the mirage batons?]

Red Wave glanced over toward them and smirked. "Miranda's using two mallets now and Mel's got the batons. Looks like they're having fun." Her attention was taken momentarily by a trio of incoming Vong.

[Ah… Peter says that they're moving on to the sixth node now. Anything you want me to tell him?]

"Only if you want to relay a flirtatious message, and being that he's your foster brother, I'm pretty sure you don't." Red Wave turn and caught another Vong that tried to sneak past her guard.

[Cute. I'll just tell him that all is well and that you're planning on lots of innuendo later.]

"Jess!"

[What?]

"Nevermind."

[Uh-huh...]

~*~*~*~*~

Blue Wave turned to Mara as they were finding their way to the next node and regarded her calmly. "Ranko wants to know how you are."

Mara smiled. "Better than I've been in weeks... how's Luke?" She could feel him sure, but that wasn't good enough and the signals were confusing.

"Jess? Mara wants to know how Luke is." He listened for a moment, then nodded. "And Moira? ...Okay, good."

"Well?"

"He's fine. Finding the Vong disconcerting, but fine."

"Disconcerting?"

"They don't show up in the force." Blue Wave shrugged. "Takes a little getting used to."

Mara frowned a moment. "Is that why I don't feel anyone here but our group?"

"Yes," Gray Wave said from behind them.

"Oh." Mara was about to say something when she felt a sudden emotional uprising in the rear. "What was that?"

Gray Wave sighed. "Elsie."

"Again?" Blue Wave asked, letting Mara take the lead, and going to check.

"I'm confused."

"Don't be. It's par for the course while on a mission."

"'Par for the course?'"

Gray Wave chuckled. "Yeah."

~*~*~*~*~

Han smiled as Jacen and Jaina played with a toy boat in the tub. They let him give them their baths and now all they seemed to want to do was play in the warm water. A hand on his shoulder made him startle and he looked to find Leia there, worry in her eyes. "Is something wrong?"

"It's probably nothing," Leia said. "Odd sensations is probably all it is."

"They're all right out there?"

"I think so… I hope so."

"Come watch us rock the boat, Momma!" Jaina said excitedly.

Leia smiled at her antics. "That looks like fun."

~*~*~*~

Dark Star was laying at Moira's feet while Moira listened to the open comm channel and watched the sensors.

[Moira? Peter is requesting a status check,] Jessica's voice said from the relay channel.

Moira checked the monitor board. "Everything's all clear on this end. How are things?"

[One moment… Okay, sorry about that. Things seem to be great. My brother is being annoying and Miranda may have to bargain with Melinda to get her weapons back. Oh, and I have a question for you from Mara.]

"Yes?"

[How is Dark Star?]

Moira glanced down. "Sleeping."

[At least someone is… wait. Who is Dark Star?]

"Mara's pet." Moira looked at the status board again and noticed that one of the grays was lit up. "Ask Peter if Elsie's all right. Her sensor is blinking at me."

[Right…] There was a slight pause, and then she came back. [She's fine. Slight problem at a check point. Turns out that the Vong aren't completely invisible and she walked through a psychic shadow.]

"Do I need to pull her?"

[No, if we had to pull her every time something like that happened, she'd never get to do anything.]

"Ah."

~*~*~*~*~

Mara had almost gotten used to it being quiet and the mission being easy when they happened upon a group of Vong and she found out why Blue Wave had told her not to say that it had been too quiet.

Her eyes narrowed and, lightsaber ignited, she waded into the fray, the rest of Blue Team quickly behind her.

Mara stuck and lashed out with her lightsaber as the rest of blue team let loose around her, unsheathing their assortment of small arms. There would be no mercy here, she knew, for they'd come too far and seen too much as they'd made their way from node to node.

Blue Wave entered the fray with his glaive already swinging for the first warrior in his path. He struck, and it fell to the ground. "I was hoping to get through this without fighting," he said through clenched teeth.

Bronze Wave chuckled. "Small chance of that, Shadow Man." She aimed with her bow and fired, then pulled out a short sword and a dagger.

Mara barely noticed the action around her as she took down a warrior at a time, coldly and methodically. Time became fluid as they kept coming, seemingly without end, and then it was over, just as quickly as it began.

Out of breath, but not exhausted, Mara looked around and was prepared for more.

Dust Wave came up beside her. "I think we got 'em all."

Mara nodded slowly, still scanning the shadows for more. "Seems that way."

Blue Wave looked around at his team and counted. "Alright, lets move on, shall we?"

Echo Wave saluted him. "Sir, yes sir."

Mara blinked at that as the rest of the team had a collective chuckle.

"Was that really necessary, Chris?" Blue Wave asked as they continued on to the next node.

"Probably not, but I felt like it."

"Right…"

Much later…

Red Wave was concentrating on providing cover when she saw something out of the corner of her eye that distracted her for a moment with a sense of déjà vu so real that it nearly bowled her over.

Not five feet away, Luke felt a ripple of emotion, almost like an echo, and frowned. "Ranko?"

"It's nothing," Red Wave said, her voice tight.

Luke wasn't convinced, but nodded and shifted his attention back to the incoming Vong.

"Okay, we're done," Orange Wave said from behind him as she got up off the ground, and pulled out her staff. "What's going on… oh no."

Gold Wave heard the almost strangled tone in Susan's voice and frowned. "What?"

Orange Wave motioned to Red Wave. "Tell me I'm wrong."

"Huh?" Gold Wave turned as she unsheathed her weapon, and nearly dropped it in shock. "Oh ****."

Luke blinked at the sudden use of language and turned just in time to find Orange Wave throwing herself at him, and tackling him bodily to the ground.

He had no time to wonder why, as the answer erupted right in front up him in an electrical frenzy.

"Sorry!" Orange Wave yelled over the noise.

~*~*~*~

They were at another node, and Mara was again guarding an opening with Blue Wave. "How much longer is this going to take?"

"Not too long," Gray Wave told her quietly. "This node is bigger than the others, so it's taking longer to do."

"It's a central node, Dawn," Bronze Wave pointed out. "Of course it's bigger."

"So we could have just come straight to this one to set up the feedback?" Echo Wave asked.

"Wouldn't have been as effective," Silver Wave muttered. She noticed a slight flicker in the light levels and frowned. "That's weird."

"What is?" Mara wondered.

"Minor atmospheric change, not sure what kind… Jessica?"

[Yes?]

"We had a flicker. Did something happen?"

Pause… [It's nothing, really. We'll tell you later.]

Silver Wave frowned at that answer. "What?"

[Just trust me. It can wait.]

"Jess?" Blue Wave asked. "Are you hedging because you know I'll get mad?"

[Yes,] Jessica said simply.

"Right, then. Is she at least speaking an earth language?"

[Mostly.]

Blue Wave sighed. "Tell Moira to pull her in ten minutes if we aren't done before then."

[Will do.]

Mara frowned at him. "What happened?"

"She pulled a Thundershock on the Vong."

"What does that have to do with atmospheric change?"

Luckily, he didn't have to answer as they were interrupted by the other half of their team pulling away from the node and joining them at the archway.

"Okay, now we're done," Gray Wave told them. "And Mara? You'll find out. Trust me on that."

Mara looked at her funny. "Right…"

~*~*~*~

Luke slowly got up off the ground and dusted himself off, then stared around at the immediate area. Everything, including the Vong warriors in the general vicinity, was absolutely charred to a crisp. "What in the name of the Force?"

"That's why I tackled you," Orange Wave said sheepishly. "I forgot about the personal shields."

Luke's gaze fell on Ranko, who was now in plain clothes and sitting down. "What happened?"

"That's what I'd like to know," Gold Wave muttered. "Ranko?" The woman shrugged, and said something in a language Luke didn't understand, and Gold Wave stared first at her, then turned around to see where everyone else was. "Ah. You know Amy is fine, right?"

"Si."

"I knew there was a reason I didn't want to do another one of these missions," Pink Wave said as she came up to them, still dusting herself off. She glanced at Luke. "Sorry about that. Our fearless leader will be fine. Granted, she'll be speaking nearly every language she knows for an hour or so and Peter may kick her butt, but she'll be fine… and that last one was Spanish. Como esta?"

"Bien," Ranko said as she got to her feet, shaking her head. "Usted?

"Fine, but I'll believe it when you're speaking English."

"Is this kind of thing a regular occurance?" Luke wondered.

"Only when something stupid happens," Copper Wave said as she joined them, limping more than slightly.

[Hey guys?] Jessica asked. [Allison wants to know what's going on.]

"Ranko happened," Yellow Wave told her.

[Ah… Do you think Moira should pull her right now?]

Yellow Wave glanced at Ranko. "Your call, Ranko."

"Niet."

Yellow Wave snorted. "You start speaking Chinese, I'll hurt you."

Blue Team appeared just then, and Ranko ran to Blue Wave. "Airen! Wo Ai Ai!"

"…or not…" Yellow Wave giggled as Ranko snuggled up to Blue Wave.

"Wo Ai Ni."

"Love you too, Ranko," Blue Wave muttered. He glanced around the immediate are and whistled softly. "Moira?"

[Yes?]

"Fourteen to teleport. We're done."

~*~*~*~

When the transport sequence wound down, Peter took a moment to glare at his wife. "What was the idea here?"

Ranko blinked innocently at him. "Nani?"

"You knew that an energy discharge like that could set off a bad reaction, Ranko. What happened? ...And don't start acting like you don't understand. I know you do."

Mara turned to Luke. "What is he talking about? I still don't get it."

Luke shrugged. "Some sort of energy thing. She hasn't spoken basic since."

Mara thought back to what the area had looked like. "Oh." Her eyes widened when Ranko launched into a long explanation in a tongue that she wasn't familiar with. "Oh... huh?"

Susan sighed and handed translators to Luke, Mara, and Moira who'd just entered the cabin. "She'll be like that for a while. Put these on or you'll be utterly lost."

"How many languages does she know?" Moira wondered. She remembered the lessons in elvish, so it wasn't that much of a surprise.

"I lost count at 10," Susan muttered good-naturedly. "Don't ask. It had to do with an education mix-up, or so the story goes."

"A what?" Mara asked as she put the translator on, still slightly baffled.

"My sister didn't have a normal childhood," Susan shrugged. "One of the results was that she's multi-lingual."

Mara nodded slowly, still not getting it really. "Right." She turned her attention to the currently defensive Ranko and was startled when she could understand it.

{{…and then I saw Amy down, and had a…}} Here Ranko paused, at a loss for words. {{Well, you know what I had. It wasn't good. And I forgot all about the energy bombs, Peter. I shouldn't have, but…}}

Peter glanced at Amy. "You got thrown to the ground?"

Amy rolled her eyes. "I let my guard down and a hit got through. I'm fine... And you're seriously blaming it on something totally random?"

Ranko just looked at her for a moment, unsure of how to explain it. {{I am not blaming anyone for my actions, AJ. I am just explaining. You know why.}}

"Yes, I understand that you had a flashback. I also understand that I was fine and there wasn't a paralelle between my getting knocked to the ground and Carter having an aneurysm caused by a Colmeri telepath."

{{I didn't say it was logical, Amy.}}

Peter muttered something that Mara couldn't hear and Ranko turned to glare at him. "Don't think I'm not serious, because I am."

"I was going to tell Jill to stop by and have a talk," Susan spoke up after a moment of thought. "This just reinforces that."

{{And what was your reasoning?}}

"Various little things, like you bringing up my being kidnapped. It happened 30 years ago and it is over and done, just like what happened to Carter. And they were both accidents more than anything else."

[I hate to interrupt here, but y'all may want to look out the view ports or something.] Jessica's voice came over the comm system before they could lay into Ranko any further. [And I called Jill already. She'll be here shortly.]

{{Great,}} Ranko muttered as they all turned to the view port and watched as… nothing happened. {{Um... did we forget something?}}

[Aproaching max build-up, two, one... zero... now.] Vincent counted down for them, almost in sync with a bright flash that filled the view port.

{{Vincent?}} Ranko asked. {{Did we get all of them in that?}}

[Peter, did she just ask if we got everything? I didn't understand most of it.]

"Yes, she did. Well?"

[We're checking,] Jessica told him. [I'm pretty sure you did, but is good to make certain so we don't have to do it all over again… Hi, Jill. Good to see ya.]

Ranko sighed. {{Terrific. I don't wanna.}}

[You're the one who had the incident. Deal with it.]

{{What are you, my mother?}}

[No, but I could call her and tell her all about this if you want. See how well it goes over with her, hmm?]

Ranko said something not worth translating.

[Hah, hah… Okay, according to my screen here, this says, preliminarily, that all of them blew up, skips included. Don't go celebrating just yet, as it's a prelim report.]

Susan frowned, and turned to Ranko. "I'm going to go and help them with that."

Ranko nodded. {{Go on.}}

"Right... Savvy, come with me."

"You understood that?" Savage asked as she followed Susan out of the crew compartment.

Susan laughed. "It's only ancient Valari, Savage. Of course I understood it..."

Ranko shook her head and glanced at Peter. {{If she gives Jill a full report, I'll scream.}}

"Before or after your language skills return to normal?" Peter teased her playfully.

{{You really think it'd matter?}} And then Ranko grimaced as she heard something over her private comm chanel that she didn't like. She sighed. {{Fine. Peter, tell Jill okay for me, would ya? Might as well get it over with.}}

Peter chuckled. "Right. Jill? If you didn't understand the grumbling, permission granted."

~*~*~*~*~

Mara leaned against the bulkhead, calmly watching as the Wave Rangers went through various calming routines and cleaned up.

Luke turned to her with an inquisitive expression. "How was it?"

"Couple hours of boredom with a moment of sheer terror," Mara told him blithely. She turned and smiled a little. "I think it was weird that all I did was provide extra guard…"

"And?"

"And it was fun."

"Fun?"

"With sheer terror intermixed." She considered him for a moment, then put her arms around his shoulders. "And I remembered something in all of this, Farmboy."

Luke smiled down at her. "Oh really?"

She nodded. "Yes."

"And what was that?"

"I love you."

He saw in her eyes a sparkle that had been missing since she'd woken up in the hospital months ago, and he believed. "What changed?"

"I needed to go and do something to remember what it was that made me… me." She paused, going over that in her mind. "Okay… that made no sense, but you know what I mean."

He silenced her with a kiss. When the kiss ended, Mara blinked up at him. "I know what you mean, Mara. I love you, too."

Mara gazed up at him, then said with conviction: "We are so getting married when we get back to Coruscant."

"There was never a doubt in my mind that we wouldn't be."

Off to the side, Melinda nudged Amy in the shoulder and motioned to the happy couple. "You know, for some reason, I don't think the cannon time line applies."

Amy followed her gaze and smiled. "It's a possibility."

~*~*~*~

Melinda waited until Peter came back from the private lounge before trying to discuss her suspicions with anyone. "I think we don't have to worry about The Eye."

Peter took a moment to process that, then looked at her for an explanation. "And what makes you think so?"

Melinda rolled her eyes and dragged him to the crew compartment. She motioned to the two occupants. "Them and the run-down of events that haven't happened yet. Exar Kun but no Callista? Really, Peter."

"That could be delayed, you know." Peter noticed just how comfortable the two Jedi seemed together, then turned to look at Melinda. "Have Susan do a data analysis, just to make sure. If it can wait, then it'll have to wait."

"You mean triage."

"Exactly."

[Already on it,] Susan said over the private comm channel. [Also, we didn't QUITE get everything.]

Peter leaned against the door frame. "How much are we talking about?"

[Ninety-seven percent was destroyed... Palora saw the final readout, and rushed out of here so fast it almost gave me whiplash. She's putting an ASTG unit together now.]

Melinda blinked. "What?"

[Just what I said. The ASTG's are going to mop up the rest… should we pity the Vong?]

Peter exchanged a glance with Melinda, then snorted. "No. If anything, feel bad that Palora just pulled Wildcat and Tiger off their vacation because we didn't get everything."

"She wouldn't do that, would she?" Melinda wondered.

"Of course she would. And Salana, too. Right, Susan?"

[Yeah.]

Luke noticed the two of them by the doorway, took in the somberness, and nudged Mara. "Something's up."

Mara followed his gaze, and nodded slowly. "Seems that way. Think we should ask?"

Luke considered them for a moment, assessing them, then shook his head. "No. I don't feel anything totally wrong there, just…"

"A feeling of unease?" Mara finished when he trailed off.

"Somewhat." They watched as Ranko joined them at the door, and were treated to Melinda sighing dramatically and stomping away. "Huh?"

Ranko glanced their way and smiled. "Post-mission debriefing. It's required."

Mara blinked. "When did you start speaking Basic again?"

"An hour ago." Ranko looked at Peter. "I heard Susan's assessment. That's not bad, really."

Peter rolled his eyes at her. "Not bad, but not good, either. And we could have gotten everything."

"In just the right circumstances, yes. I'm just glad we don't have to do it all over again."

"Amen to that."

Ranko turned to regard Luke and Mara again. "So… where were you going before your trip turned into a royal mess?"

"On a trading run, then back to Coruscant," Mara said with a slight smile. "We're not due back for another couple of weeks, though."

Luke suddenly remembered something. "Hey, is there any way to make a comm to Coruscant from here?"

Peter nodded. "I can help you set it up if you want." He led Luke out of the room.

Mara shook her head, still smiling, then looked at Ranko. "Where is my ship, anyway? I had some cargo on board and I hope it's still intact."

"It's locked in our tractor beam still. The damage wasn't that bad, really… just extensive. Come on, let's go see what there is to salvage, hmm?"

Mara nodded, and followed Ranko out.

~*~*~*~

Mara stared at the sensor readout with amazement. "How in the name of the Force did we get out of that?"

"I've seen worse," Ranko muttered while she adjusted the screen so Mara could see it better. "We had a knock-down drag-out at home that caused more than this and ships still managed to limp away from it. Kinda... the most I see here is structural. Right there, see?"

Mara looked at where she was pointing and nodded. "The pressure seals were broken... wait, does that mean that the cargo is frozen?"

Ranko adujust the senors a little more and studied the output. "Would that be a bad thing?"

"Some of it was medical."

"Well, not all of it was frozen and the boxes were pretty well insulated, so... chances are, no. Not all of it is frozen."

Mara turned to look at her. "You babble when you're thinking, don't you?"

"Comes with the many-language episode. Annoying, yes, but... it's a short-term thing." Ranko shrugged and adjusted the senors some more. "Nice ring, by the way."

Mara snorted, trying not to laugh. "Thanks."

"So when's the big day?" At the unresponsive silence, Ranko turned and looked at her. Mara was staring at her with an unreadable expression. "What? No one on this ship is so blind that they can't identify sexual tension from fifty paces. And I know what it looks like, I've watched three kids be teenagers in love… more, if you count my younger siblings."

"When we get back to Coruscant," Mara said slowly.

"Oh, so that's why you want to get the trading run over with."

"Yes."

Ranko chuckled and then turned back to the sensor panel. "You think we should drop these things back at Lamarred? That's the system you were in."

Mara shook her head. "Only if there were people left there. And considering that we jumped into the middle of an attack and just barely managed to get away…" She let the unsaid conclusion hang there between them.

Ranko sat back and thought about it a moment, before cocking her head to one side. "Sue?"

[I wouldn't recommend it. That was Palora's first stop. She said there wasn't a whole lot left that was salvageable, and hardly anyone left alive. The ones that survived were evacuated to Elidar for treatment.]

"Meaning that we don't need to go there."

[Correct… hey. This is interesting…]

"What is?" Mara asked. Ranko glanced back at her in question, and Mara shrugged. "I didn't take my comm. off."

"Ah… Well, Susan?"

[Hmm? Oh, right… You don't mind hot and dry weather do you?]

"No…"

[Well, it goes like this…]

Ranko listened to the plan that Susan was laying out while sharing a look with Mara. "You're not serious, right?"

[Why wouldn't I be? The supplies have to go somewhere, don't they?]

"Well yes, but… Tatooine?"

[Alright, you give me a better planet and I'll look it up. It's the closest one that I recognized and there's always a supply need.]

"Right… what about Kessel?"

"No," Mara answered before Susan could. "She's right. It is the closest one."

[There's also a medical need.]

"That, too."

"Are you two ganging up on me or something?"

[Yes.]

"Wonderful."

[There's also something else, Ran-chan.]

"Clear it with Peter first."

[Why?]

"Jill demoted me, is the why."

[Huh?]

"Nothing major, but it's Peter's call on where we go and when until I'm reinstated." The wry tone of her voice didn't go unnoticed.

[I'll ask him, then.]

Mara found that very odd. "This Jill person has that kind of authority?"

"She's a psychiatrist," Ranko said simply.

"What is that supposed to mean?"

"It means that yes, she has that kind of pull, both for medical and mental reasons."

"Oh."

Susan came back momentarily: [Okay, Peter thinks it's a good plan, though he does wonder why you're deferring to him.]

"He WANTS to go to a desert planet?"

[You're the one who left him with the Jedi moisture farmer.]

Ranko sighed. "Great."

"It's not that bad," Mara muttered absently.

Ranko turned and stared at her. "Yes it is, especially when there's a possible emergency of undefined origin."

"Well, yes, but… no, forget I said that."

[There's one thing in all this…] Susan began, then trailed off.

"And that would be?" Ranko asked blithely.

[This way, you won't get blamed for misuse of teleportation privileges again.]

Ranko couldn't help but laugh. "True."

"Misuse of what?" Mara wondered.

"I had a world tour via our teleportation system. My aunt wasn't exactly thrilled about it."

[Mom wasn't either.]

Earlier…

Tasha sighed as she examined a warrior and realized what she was looking at. "This one is tagged."

Palora turned from the discussion she'd been having with Aniya and frowned. "Are you sure?"

"Do I sound sure?" Tasha concentrated on the female warrior that had been severely injured and frowned. "I…"

"Do it, Tasha. Some good must come of all this."

But Tasha wasn't listening to her. She was holding eye contact with the warrior, silently asking, searching. Something in the warrior's gaze was saying very clearly: "I am strong, and I choose this. But not your way. Not with you."

Tasha nodded very slowly, a tear sliding down her cheek. "I understand." The warrior nodded back, acknowledging her.

Tasha bowed her head, observing a moment of silence as she felt the warrior's passing. Then slowly, Tasha stood up and turned to face Palora. "She didn't want it. I can do nothing unless they want it. She didn't."

Palora started at her. "But you said she was tagged."

"Not every tagged person becomes a time guardian, Palora. You know that."

"But…"

Tasha motioned to the warrior's body. "As a healer, I have to ask and honor the choice one makes, whatever it may be. If a person doesn't want to become a T.G., then that is their right."

"Do no harm?"

"Exactly." Tasha glanced down and noticed the silvery sheen of an aura outlining the body. "What in the…"

"What?" Palora asked, looking down. She frowned. "What is that?"

Tasha didn't answer her, instead gauging the glow with her senses, her eyes trying to make sense of it. She was still trying to figure it out when the shine turned into a glow, and then the warrior coughed and sat up.

Tasha knelt down again, looking hard into the warrior's stunned eyes… and blinked in surprise. "Palora?"

"Yes?"

"Was there a time element for the Yuuzhan Vong homeworld?"

"Not that I'm aware of." Palora pulled a datapadd out and considered the info there for a long moment before looking up again. "No, there isn't."

"Well now there is." Tasha smiled and spoke in the warrior's language. The warrior answered back, and Tasha nodded, then glanced up at Palora. "Tagged, but not for us. This one is special."

"They all are."

Now…

Elsie waited until she could catch a moment alone with Mara, and then pounced. "I have something to tell you."

Mara looked up from the datapad that she'd been reading a frowned. "Oh really? What?"

Elsie pulled a chair over and sat down. "I don't usually get flashes of events that haven't happened yet, but the first time I touched you, I got something. It took a while to sort through all the information, but… well, it's not bad, just important that you know."

Mara was curious now. Up until this moment, the woman sitting across from her had been short-tempered, almost rude. "I'm all ears."

"It'd be easier to show you, but basically… you…" Elsie took a deep breath to calm herself. "You have family out there. I have no idea where or when or how, I just know that you do. Don't run away from it if it happens that I'm right." As Elsie stood up, she paused. "And your first grandchild? Don't get mad, Ms. Jade. I know you don't understand right now, but you will."

Mara watched her leave, almost mystified. "First grandchild?"

She'd wonder for a very long time.

~*~*~*~

Dark Star had refused to stay behind again when they prepared to depart via teleporter. Moira had tried to pick her up and Dark Star had hissed and swiped with a clawed paw, startling Moira so bad that Melinda had to take her aside and calm her down.

"I…" Moira glanced at the animal that was sitting at Mara's feet and growling. "I…"

"Look at me," Melinda commanded, drawing Moira's attention on to her. "Don't look at Dark Star, look at me." Finally, Moira looked straight at Melinda. "You're fine, got that? She's a cat, they do that when they don't want to be held."

Moira took a deep breath to steady herself, and nodded. "You're right. It's just… she let me do it yesterday."

"Doesn't mean she'll fall for the same trick twice." Melinda turned and waved those that were going off. "Go on. Try not to get into too much trouble down there."

Ranko snorted. "Right. We'll try."

"Try not. Do." Melinda smirked as she saw the surprise in the Jedi Master's eyes right before she hit the teleport mechanism. "I've always wanted to do that."

"Do what?" Moira asked her.

"Grandstand."

"Huh?"

"Long story."

"Right…"

~*~*~*~*~

"I forgot how much I hated dry heat," Ariel muttered to Elsie as they stood on a sand berm standing guard while Mara and Luke negotiated a deal for their cargo. Well… Mara was negotiating. Luke was standing beside her looking intimidating with a cat at his feet.

"It's not so bad," Elsie murmured back to her.

"Uh-huh. Sure it's not."

[Hush, you two,] Susan told them. [Your voices can carry farther than you think.]

~*~*~*~*~

"That was good thinking," Mara told Luke after they were done. "Just the right people who needed what we had."

"Glad you think so." Luke glanced around to see where their guards were and shook his head. "Think we can lose them for a little while? It's…"

Mara bent down and picked Dark Star up while she considered it. "Probably. Why?"

"We haven't had a true moment to ourselves in days."

The sincerity in his voice made her smile. "All right. Here, hold Dark Star for a moment."

Luke took Dark Star from her and they both watched as Mara went off to talk to Ranko. "Hmm…"

~*~*~*~*~

Ranko considered the red-haired woman for a long moment before nodding. "Alright. We're a beep away if you need us. Go for a walk or something."

Mara nodded back. "I don't suppose you'd take Dark Star with you?"

"Not a chance. I don't get between territorial felines and their owners."

Mara couldn't help but chuckle at that. "Good point."

~*~*~*~

As they walked among the sand dunes, Dark Star trailing behind them, Mara couldn't help but notice her fiance's far-off expression. "Luke?"

Luke glanced at her. "What?"

"Are you all right? You seem distracted."

He looked away from her and shrugged. "It's nothing."

"I don't think it's nothing." A year ago, she wouldn't have intruded on his thoughts in this way, but they'd been getting closer and he'd done it to her so much in the past few months. Only the fact that it had helped her to heal was making her bold now as she reached out and made him look at her. "Tell me?"

"Doesn't matter now, Mara. You're safe, we're alive." He tried to look away again, but she wouldn't let him.

"Sure it matters." She looked into his eyes lovingly. "Tell me? Please?"

Luke considered her for a minute before taking her in his arms and embracing her tightly. "I am never letting you go again. Not without me."

Mara blinked, not having expected him to react that way. "Huh?"

Luke pulled back to look at her again. "I searched for you for months and then found you in the nick of time."

"That reminds me. What happened there? I need to know, Luke."

Luke looked away for a moment. "Most of them are dead. Two ended up in a Correllian prison for life."

"I was on Correllia?"

"No, that was the planet with governing authority in the sector."

The way he answered that question made her wonder why he was being so… dodgy in answering. "So where was I?"

"On a planet in the Correllian sector."

"You're not going to tell me, are you?"

"No."

"Why not?"

He hesitated before answering her. "There were more than just you there in that place, Mara. They… well, it wasn't good, any of it."

"And you don't want me to go there and see the remnants of it?"

"No."

"Okay."

Luke blinked. "Huh?" He'd obviously expected her to go further in probing him out.

"I don't want to go back there either, I just wanted answers. I'm glad you found me, farmboy." She kissed him soundly, only pulling away at the soft 'meow' at their feet. Looking down at Dark Star, Mara smiled. "We still have a chaperone."

"Yes we do… I love you, Mara."

"I love you, too. What's say we get going, hmm?"

"I want to be alone with you a little while longer."

"We're not alone."

"Dark Star doesn't count."

They walked among the dunes for a while longer, hand in hand, with Dark Star following behind them.

~*~*~*~

They were still walking amid the sand dunes when Mara felt Luke stiffen slightly beneath her hand. As she moved to ask, an answer came in the form of a lowing animal, far-off in the desert. It almost seemed like the wind had carried the sound directly to them. "Luke?"

"Bantha," he muttered, as if to himself.

She frowned at his tone as she turned to look at him. There was something there… primal and unknown, but there. She hadn't heard him use that kind of a tone before. "Are you all right?"

He nodded slowly. "It's nothing, Mara."

"Really?"

The question hung between them for a long moment until Luke turned to her, an old pain clearly in his eyes. "They day I left Tatooine, there were Banthas… and Sand People… and Dewbacks outside the cantina."

Mara wasn't sure what to make of that statement as she looked back at him, taking in the pain that she could feel through their bond as well as see in his eyes… and then she began to put the pieces together in her mind. He'd left after something terrible… Wordlessly, she pulled him into her arms. He'd lost so much that day...

"At least there weren't any Eopies," Luke said after they'd stood there a while, tickling her ear with his breath.

Not wanting to let go, she frowned down at Dark Star, who was watching them with what appeared to be curiosity. "What's an Eopie?"

At that, Luke snickered. Then he chuckled. Then, unable to contain himself, he outright laughed and pulled gently out of the embrace to sit down on the sand.

Mara stared down at him. "Eopies are funny?"

That, plus the befuddled expression on her face, just set him off again. "Oh, you have no idea!"

"Um… right…"

Mara sat down next to him as he slowly sobered, and Dark Star climbed into her lap. "So, really… what is an Eopie?"

"Sort of a pack animal, really," Luke said as he reached over and scratched behind Dark Star's ears. "The Tauntaun's on Hoth reminded me of them, a little…"

She nodded, waiting for him to continue, and frowned again when he didn't. Looking at him, he seemed really focused on the feline in her lap, and Mara decided to let that one be. She did want to know why a Tauntaun reminded him of desert pack animals, though…

"It wasn't the Tauntaun," he said suddenly, startling her. At Mara's unspoken question, he answered, "It was what happened to the Tauntaun."

"And?" Mara asked, probing for more. "What happened to the Tauntaun?"

Luke looked away again, a distant expression on his face. "I…"

"Don't," Mara told him, and he looked at her in question. She slowly cupped his cheek and smiled comfortingly. "You don't have to tell me now, Luke. When you're ready, and not before."

Luke nodded, and together the three of them enjoyed some quiet, although warm, time before they needed to rejoin the group to leave…

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Foreign words this chapter...
> 
> Niet: "No." (Russian)
> 
> Nani: "What?" (Japanese)
> 
> Airen: "Husband/loved one" (Chinese)
> 
> Wo Ai Ni: "I love you." (Chinese)
> 
> Si: "Yes." (Spanish)
> 
> Hola, Como Esta: Spanish greeting meaning "Hello, how are you?"
> 
> Usted: "And you?" (Spanish)
> 
> Bien: "Good." (Spanish)


	20. Chapter 20

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: There's something in here that coincides with another story, called "So they met in a bar..."

As they neared the group who were conversing as they sat together on the sand in the afternoon Tatooine sunlight, Luke stopped walking and turned to Mara. "It was a Wampa."

Mara's eyes narrowed as she tilted her head in question. "A Wampa?"

"You wanted to know what happened to the Tauntaun," Luke reminded her. He wanted to look away, but willed himself to keep looking into her eyes. Living it was one thing, but explaining it to someone else? Hard. "Hadn't really thought about it since, but…"

"Ah," Mara said after a few moments of silence. She gently traced the faint scars on his cheek with her finger, at once understanding the story behind them. "So that's how these happened."

"Yes," Luke admitted, his voice echoing strongly with the long ago memory into the slight wind blowing around them.

Mara smiled softly, glad to have the avenue of communication open and be learning something new about him. "Thank you for telling me, Luke."

"So how did you get the scar on your hip?" he asked suddenly, and then seemed to regret saying it.

Mara stared at him, stunned that he'd ask… but since they were being open with each other, it was something she could tell him. "That was a training mishap. I was 10 and leaned in to something when I should have fallen away from it."

"Ah," Luke said as he glanced toward the group of people who were now studiously ignoring them. So he had felt their attention shift over… "I wonder…"

"What?"

He motioned to the Wave Rangers, still trying to act like they were talking among themselves. "Being around them at times feels like being around my aunt and uncle did. Same sense of maturity or authority, or something…"

Mara followed his gaze as she slid her arms around his waist, and was touched by the presence they seemed to generate. He was right, they did leave that impression. "Reminds me of Iris." At his questioning glance, she sighed. "The nurse from the hospital? Nice, took away your ration bars? That is who they remind me of, though they don't seem older than they appear."

"Iris seems old to you?"

Mara rolled her eyes at him in mild annoyance. "No. Just in comparison. Something to think on, as it were."

"Hmm…" Luke glanced downward to look at Dark Star, then over at the Rangers. "We could turn around and go back to the dunes for a little while longer…"

Mara chuckled. "We do have to be going at some point, you know."

"But do you want to go right now?" He studied her, then returned the smile she was bestowing on him. "You want to have some more time alone, don't you?"

"Of course." Casting another glance at the group, Luke smiled and away they walked again. They didn't notice that Dark Star hadn't followed them back to the dunes for a while.

Miranda smirked when she allowed herself to look again and saw Dark Star sitting on the warm sand, watching as Luke and Mara walked away. "Is that good or bad?"

Ranko glanced at her. "What?"

"The cat letting them go off alone? She's… oh, there she goes." Miranda watched as Dark Star began to slowly trail behind the couple. "Interesting."

Elsie shook her head. "Seems like she is just giving them a wider berth or something, if that makes sense."

"She's a cat, you know."

"And since when has that little thing stopped animals from making people feel better?"

Pause… "Good point."

Mara sat down on the sand next to Luke and looked around. "We seem to have lost something along the way."

Luke pulled her closer as he glanced around. "So we have. Feel her anywhere?"

"Yes," Mara told him after a moment. She leaned into his embrace. "We can't stay long."

"No. Would be nice, though."

Mara heard something in his voice, a sort of tonal change she'd not heard before. "Something bothering you?"

He shook his head. "We just want to be out of here before the sand storm hits."

"Ah… how long to do we have?"

"Long enough."

And so, they sat and enjoyed each other's company for a while longer.

 

Elidar…

Taloh wasn't used to visiting the Resident Training Center on Elidar. In fact, she'd only rarely visited, and even then hadn't stayed long. Time guardians in their own environment where they could be themselves were weird... not that she had the right to call anyone weird or anything. So, as she entered the medical area after being convinced into it by a very insistent Tasha, she prepared herself to expect nearly anything... but if it so much as barked at her, she was leaving.

Looking around, she saw Tasha standing in front of someone, doing what appeared to be a physical. "All right... what was so important that you needed me, Tasha? I was in the middle of painting and had JUST the right light for it."

Tasha didn't even spare a glance in her direction, just continued what she was doing. "Does this hurt? No? ...Good. Sorry, Taloh. I'd have called someone else, but Katrine is out of contact, Mel's on a mission, Elfin is more bonkers than I have patience for right now, and Susan is on monitor duty. Plus, barring Suna, you know the most... Open your mouth for me? ...Okay. Fine. Don't." She stepped back and finally looked at Taloh. "Sorry. It's been a very hectic couple of days and the Wave Rangers pulled an intervention."

Taloh blinked, not really understanding. "But I saw Susan this morning... How can it have-"

"Elidar's time is not the same, you know. Days here can be hours or minutes there... I'm glad it's hours. They may be there a while." Tasha glanced at her patient, then shrugged. "You are the healthiest one of your kind I have ever seen... Granted, you're the only one alive of your kind I have ever seen, but it comes to the same thing."

Taloh joined her at the bedside and studied the person sitting there. The person was, quite obviously, female, with unfamiliar clothing and a skin tone that bordered on gray... with scars on her face and arms that appeared to be either decorative or tribal in nature. Taloh frown when she noticed the slight glow that she'd only ever seen once on someone else... Susan, right after her elemental status had been confirmed. "Oh. So that's why you called me."

"See it, hmm?"

Taloh nodded and walked around the other side of the bed, keeping her eyes on the warrior. At least, she was pretty certain this person was a warrior... she'd seen knights with less scaring than that. Then she smiled and held out a hand to the warrior. "Hello... Tasha, does she speak English at all?"

"Not as yet, no. I'm using a translator."

The warrior batted Taloh's hand away. {{I do not shake the hands of infidels.}}

Taloh blinked again. "Infidel? I beg your pardon? There are no infidels here, what ever your name is."

"I guess you don't need a translator set, then..." Tasha said slowly, headset in hand. "And I think her name is Van Ree."

Taloh turned and took the proffered headset from Tasha. "I might miss something. Thank you... Now then, you were saying?"

{{I do not talk to infidels.}}

Taloh rolled her eyes ceiling-ward and sighed. "Great... I haven't been called that since the crusades. It brings up so many wonderful memories." She made direct eye contact with the warrior and glared at her. "I take great offence at being called an infidel, Van Ree. There are no infidels here. They are good people, if at times somewhat odd... And, if I am an infidel, then so, now, are you. You are one of us, and you're alive when you should quite obviously have died, judging by the state of your clothing that has really seen better days... and, unless I miss my guess, you did die. So you are now an infidel as well. Try again, only think before you speak. Everyone else here might not be as nice as I am now being."

The warrior stared at her, then at Tasha, then at Taloh again. {{What?}}

"Like I said, you are among friends here, but you have to understand that certain things are not the same as they were for you in the life you led. Things changed, Van Ree, and now you have to adapt, like it or not." Taloh held out her hand again. "This is a greeting. It means welcome and hello."

Slowly and uncertainly, Van Ree took hold of her hand and clumsily shook it. {{Um... Hello?}}

Taloh smiled. "Good enough." She glanced at Tasha. "What happened and why is Susan on monitor duty, and what did the Rangers do?"

Tasha sighed tiredly. "There was a distress signal, and Ranko pulled a team together to see what the signal was about, and then there was an invasion... Van Ree's people were the invasion force."

"Oh... and Susan is on monitor duty because of it?"

"Yep. The Wave Rangers blew the invaders up... I still think that was overkill, but it was their call."

Taloh stared at her, then looked at Van Ree again with new eyes. A planetary guardian among enemy forces. That was one for the books... "I really wish I'd stayed to finish that painting... Tasha, do you know if Rala was part of that?"

"She wasn't. Whuki and Rala both missed it. They were on a mission and out of contact."

"Good. If they hadn't been, I'd have needed to have a word with my daughter. Blowing up an entire strike force like that..."

"We had to clean up what they missed, if that helps."

Taloh snorted. "No... wait. Is that how this happened? Did Van Ree here pull a Battlefield Surprise on you or something?"

"If, by that, you mean: 'Did she come back to life and kick our butts'? Then no. It was just a plain old surprise, but the Battlefield Surprise..." Tasha smiled at her. "You are still the only time element with that honor, Taloh."

Taloh shook her head. "No, Susan did it once... those cult members never knew what hit 'em."

"I forgot about that. Sorry."

Taloh held out her hand again to Van Ree. "Well? Would you like to see more of this place than just the medical ward?" Van Ree hesitantly took her hand and Taloh helped her off the bed. "All right, then... Susan is in the lab, right?"

"Gonna surprise her by just dropping in?"

"Yes."

"Have fun."

~*~*~*~*~*~

Susan was holding Victoria when she felt someone enter the computer lab that normally never came to Elidar. She frowned and turned to find Taloh standing there with... was that a Yuuzhan Vong warrior? "Um..."

Taloh came closer, held out her arms expectantly, and Susan wordlessly handed Victoria to her. "Thank you, Susan... And yes, Van Ree is what you think she is."

"Got pulled away from painting, huh?"

"You know me so well." Victoria burbled to get Taloh's attention and Taloh smiled down at her. "Yes, Vicky. You are so cute, yes you are."

"You didn't come here just for some baby time, did you?"

"Good guess... Vincent, can I borrow Susan for a few minutes? There's something we need to discuss."

Vincent turned away from his computer screen and nodded. "There's not much going on right now, so go ahead."

"Traitor," Susan muttered, nearly mocking him with her tone.

"Hey, if Taloh came all the way to Elidar, then it must be important."

Susan glared at him. "I am so going to find a way to break your arm later."

"I think not," Taloh told her. "You mother will find out if he somehow turns up injured later."

"Mom's been known to congratulate me for that kind of thing..."

"He's your cousin, Susan."

"So?"

"And she congratulated you for stopping a robbery, but for breaking the arms of family members... Somehow, I don't think she would..."

Susan sighed. "I just can't be sarcastic with you, can I?"

"No."

After they deposited Victoria safely back into Emanee's care, Taloh dragged Susan and Van Ree to a lounge, made Susan sit down, and glared at her. "You mind explaining to me why you were involved in blowing up a strike force, thus leaving your responsibility unprotected?"

Susan calmly stared back at her. "I was part of the distraction, Daena."

{{I thought your name was Taloh?}} Van Ree suddenly asked, sounding confused.

Taloh sighed. "It's both... Susan, you did not answer my question."

"I did not leave my planet unprotected. We left half our team at home, you know."

"Susan..."

"What? Ranko needed a team. She didn't know precisely what for, and everyone else was either out of contact or on medical leave... And if Maria hadn't had surgery last week, she would have gone instead of me. I have two obligations, Daena: to my planet and to my team... My team needed me, and thus I heeded the call. If Ranko hadn't begged and pleaded as much as she did, I would have happily stayed at home and been blissfully unaware."

Knowing the other woman as she did, Taloh realized suddenly that Susan, after months of being in a state of mourning, was feeling better, even if she wasn't saying it. Taloh nodded, "Fair enough... But blowing up a fleet? Wasn't that overkill?"

"No." Susan glanced at Van Ree. "No offense meant to your people, ma'am, but invading a galaxy, no matter when or where they do it, is not a way to win friends or influence people. Not that they actually deserved to be blown up, but..."

"Susan," Taloh said, her voice hard and eyes flashing with silent anger. "This is Van Ree... She's one of us."

Susan stared at Taloh, then looked at Van Ree with a careful, discerning eye. She saw it, too. "Ah... And here I thought she was a new time guardian or something and she was following you around for no reason..." Susan held her hand out and Van Ree slowly took it. "I humbly apologize for my remarks about your people, Van Ree. I've had a very long couple of days, my sister blew up and nearly fried us, and... I'm grouchy. I am mean when I'm grouchy."

Two flashes of light, one silver and one black, appeared in the lounge and solidified into two people, both women. "Tiger, I swear, if we ever take another vacation and return only to have to clean up a mess, I'm taking a permanent leave of absence. I don't care what Carnegie says about it."

Tiger, so called because of her silver and black striped hair, just sighed as the other woman stormed off in a huff. Then she shrugged when she noticed the three of them. "Don't ask. I think she's just upset because she wanted to relax some more, and instead actually had to do something."

"Ah," Susan said with a chuckle. "Anything interesting happen out there?"

"Not really... Hi, Taloh. Staying on Elidar long? I'm making dinner shortly and you're invited."

"Mind if I go and get Daniel?"

"He's invited, too."

"Good."

Taloh waited until Tiger was out of earshot before looking at Susan. "How bad was it that Wildcat is that frustrated?"

"We got most of it. 93 percent, anyway..."

"And Ranko blew up?"

"Someone got knocked on their but and she saw it, and it sparked something."

"Oh... need a hand?"

"Nope. Jill's been here and gone already... I did have to brush up on my Valarin, though. I forgot what the unrestrained multiple languages thing was like... and I think she's leaned some more since 2025."

"I'm amazed she keeps those straight in her head," Taloh admitted before turning and looking at Van Ree. "So... should I introduce this one here to the kind of life she's just inherited, or do you want the honors?"

"I'd love to, but I've got monitor duty. Plus, there's a wedding we were invited to." Susan smiled as Taloh stared at her. "Yes, we went on a mission of mercy, destroyed an invasion fleet, and then got invited to a wedding... Also, we rescued the bride and groom and their cat."

"You're not making that up, are you?"

"Nope."

Taloh just shook her head, laughing under her breath. "All right, I'll do it... Wait. Susan, we need to figure out where Van Ree is supposed to be."

Susan glanced at the warrior, then nodded. "I'll look into it... But it could be more simple than you think. The planet chooses the guardian, not the other way around. Sure, the potential has to be there to begin with, but it comes to the same thing."

Taloh watched as Susan walked away, then turned to Van Ree again. "Let's go outside, then. Can't train in here, lest we break something."

"It's also not allowed, Taloh," Na Omi told her as she came in and sat down in a chair, book in hand. "Teach all you want, but we've got a training field for that kind of thing..." She glanced at the warrior, then set her book down. "I'll come with."

"Why?"

"I like to help."

"Fair enough."

Elidar, hours later...

Susan couldn't help but stare at the readout on the computer screen, disbelief flooding through her mind as the ramifications and complications of what it meant totally and completely hit home. She knew, without a doubt in her mind, what had caused them to be called in by Moira. She knew what the anomaly was.

As she stood up and moved to look out a window that viewed the practice field where Taloh was leading Van Ree through more exercises with Na Omi's help, she shook her head. It should have been impossible. Totally, utterly impossible for the anomaly to exist at all. But, as she was learning the longer life went on... nothing was. Not one thing.

As she retook her seat at the computer and stared at it some more while her cousins teased each other and Jessica let Vincent take a seat before heading off to get some sleep, Susan knew she didn't have to say anything. Not one word to either of them about what she'd found. Did it really concern them? No, no it really didn't.

Pushing away from the desk that had practically become a second home for a week and a half, she both took a moment to stretch, and also set her screen to password lock so no one else would see.

Vincent, fresh from an eight hour nap, turned and frowned as he saw her start to walk away. "Taking a break, Sue?"

Susan smiled at him, praying that he wouldn't see anything off in her mannerisms. "Need to go see Vicky."

He laughed. "Go, then. Find anything?"

"Nothing of import."

She'd nearly made it to the door when he said something that made her pause. "You can't lie to me, Susan. I saw you put it to password lock."

She sighed and looked back at him, making a note to herself to have a long talk with her uncle about how well trained his son was that he'd pick up on something so subtle. "You got me. I want to look into it... and see Vicky, too."

"Bad?"

"Define 'bad', cousin."

He nodded and waved her out with a motion of his hand. "I'll be here when you get back. Eager for details, if there are any."

Susan sighed and left the lounge after snagging the back up flashdrive from her workstation, kicking herself for not having been more subtle.

Carnegie glanced up from the report she was reading to find Susan standing in the doorway of her office, appearing... panicked and intrigued at the same time. "You know, the last time anyone looked at me like that, it was Aniya. Please tell me there isn't a 'we need to save everyone' dimensional theory ramble in the offing."

"It's not going to be that," Susan told her, smiling slightly. "I just need permission to check something out and I want to run something by you. Because... I think I know what the anomaly was that resulted in us being called in, but it's impossible, or should be, and I have to make certain it's correct before I say word one to anyone else."

Carnegie frowned at her for a minute or two, sorting through that rambling babble in her head. "And... why do you need my permission for that?"

Susan entered and closed the door soundly behind herself, then turned around and leaned against it. "Because you are the last Planetary Guardian of Remykia, Cara, and I can't talk about this kind of thing with anyone else."

Carnegie continued to frown. "Technically, I'm not. I carry the power of my world, but..."

"You know what I mean." Susan moved and sank down into the chair in front of the desk. "And this is no time for technicalities. Really."

"All right. Tell me."

Susan motioned to the window. "Look out on to the practice field."

Carnegie, intrigued, stood up and looked out... to find what looked like a three person sparring session going on. "What about them?"

"Our anomaly? It's one of them. Or will be. Or was. Depending out how you look at it."

Carnegie turned back to Susan and frowned again. "What?" Susan handed a small flashdrive over, and after studying the information on it for long moments, Carnegie's eyes went wide. "Oh. You're certain of this?"

"It came up more than three times, Cara. And every time it did, it got more detailed."

Carnegie nodded after a moment, and then handed the datapad back to her. "Yes. You have my permission... Looks like an explosion. Big one."

"It was," Susan concurred.

~*~*~*~*~*~

On the surface of it, the alley was unremarkable. A forgotten space between buildings that was, as was with most alleys, strewn with trash and debris. A pale orange and silver flash solidified into a woman wearing an orange jumpsuit, and Susan wanted to gag at the smell. Immediately on edge, she scanned the walls with her eyes... and winced in recognition when she felt a familiar thrum of something impossible. Bending down beside a pile of trash, Susan frowned at finding a long piece of material that, had it not been so stained and burned, would have been white. It was long enough to wrap around someone's waist a couple of times and leave enough left over for a... bow. Someone had landed here, all right. And from the tone of the vibrations, she knew for certain who it was... this sash only put more weight to the evidence.

Standing up, she looked toward where the alley let out into a street. Did she want to know more, to go out there and see what she could find? A sound behind made her turn... to find Carnegie standing there, frowning. "Cara?"

"Need a hand? There's only so many reports I can read."

"Always."

Carnegie motioned to the cloth that Susan was holding. "Is that a sash?"

"I think so." Susan studied it some more. "It's odd, though... About the only thing I can think of this working with an outfit is a Summer Yukata."

"A what?"

"A kimono."

Carnegie paused, trying to picture the garment Susan was referring to in her mind. Something to do with cherry blossoms... Or not. "A kimono?"

Susan nodded and inspected the length of cloth more closely. Coming to one end of it, she found what she was looking for: Kanji that meant 'For Ari. Happy birthday' in blue thread. "Not just any kimono, either. I've seen this sash before."

"You have?"

"During training with Taloh. She wanted to illustrate a point about how durable Guardians are, and showed me the outfit she'd been wearing when she was in the wrong place at the right time." Susan glanced at Carnegie. "It was burned exactly like this one is... and, this is going to sound weird, but I swear it's true: the background radiation is making me itch more than it did when she showed it to me in 2027, more than 50 years after the event."

Carnegie took a moment to stare at her, needing to process what Susan had said. "So you're saying that sash is hers and somehow she's the anomaly because..."

"Because she was present for a nuclear bomb going off. Practically ground zero." Susan pulled out a scanner and ran it over the fabric in her hand. "And if the readings fit... which they do, then we either have a problem on our hands, or it'll solve itself."

"I'm hoping for the 'solving itself' senario," Carnegie told her dryly. "You're certain?"

"I am now."

"Then let's go see what we can see," Carnegie said as she motioned to the street at the mouth of the alley. Susan nodded and carefully put the sash away in her subpocket for safe keeping. Together, they walked to the street and looked out. "Looks pretty normal. Which way?"

Susan studied the establishments on both sides of the street, noted the presence of white-suited stormtroopers posted here and there, and saw something that looked inviting. "That tavern down that way. If you were uncertain of your surroundings, had never seen Selonians or Drall before, and were sort of out of it, would you go to the place that seemed the most 'human'?"

"I'm not human, Sue."

"You know what I mean."

"Yes, I do know what you mean, and yes, I'd head for somewhere that felt right or at the very least common place."

Susan smiled and led Carnegie to the tavern. The inside looked like... well, it looked like a bar would. And the man standing behind the counter didn't seem to be completely mentally present. Also kind of annoyed, judging by the way he was wiping everything down listlessly. "Odd enough to talk to." She made her way to the counter, and he frowned at her. Or, more precisely, at her orange clothes.

"Can I help you?" he asked after a moment.

Susan paused, then shook her head with a smile. "Well, I've always wanted to try a Corellian Ale, but that's not why I'm here."

His eyes narrowed as he glanced at Carnegie. "And you?"

"Satisfying a curiosity," Carnegie told him succinctly, the lilt of her Remykian accent suddenly brought more to the fore in her voice. "And I'll not have anything, either." For which Susan was eternally grateful. She didn't want to have to be the one to explain just how a Pemalite had gotten drunk on her watch.

"Slow day?" Susan asked the man as he looked around.

"Yes."

"Bored?"

"No."

"That's good, then." Susan turned to look at Carnegie. "Well, Cara? Seen enough?"

Carnegie nodded slowly, studying the man as she did so. There was something off in his reactions. Almost as if he was expecting anything and everything to happen and was relieved when it didn't. "I think we have, yes. Have a good day, sir."

When they were outside again, Susan felt a pull to the north and looked down the street. Far down the street, maybe six or so blocks away, she saw what looked like a blackened building. And maybe scorch marks. From this distance, it was hard to tell. "Come on."

"There's something off here," Carnegie muttered. "About that bartender especially."

"Probably just having a bad day. With all the Stormtroopers around, I can't imagine it's good for business."

"That wasn't what I meant."

Susan wisely chose not to probe further and they walked the rest of the way. Or as close as they could get... the street had been cordoned off and there were uniformed imperials walking around, all officious-looking. "Inside or out?"

Carnegie studied the blast pattern shrewdly. If she hadn't known better, she would have said that it had been blown up from the inside, but looking at it from this angle... "Out. From about where we're standing or a little closer."

"That's what I thought. Reminds me of that building I fried those cultists in, only done from the exterior."

"Susan..."

"What?"

"That's not something to take lightly or joke about."

"Didn't say it was. That sword hurt something fierce." A man turned in their direction and frowned at them, as if he hadn't been expecting onlookers. He came over to them. "Don't mind us, Sir."

"This is a crime scene under investigation," he told them curtly. "You have to leave."

"And we will." Susan motioned to the building. "Any progress?" At his sour expression, she grabbed hold of Carnegie's arm and nodded to him. "Right. Going now." They made a big show of walking away very fast and then ducked into the nearest doorway. She looked at Carnegie for a moment. "Given what we saw back there... want to walk around some more? Particularly away from mean Imperials?"

Carnegie nodded. "Yes. Did you feel anything off back there?"

Susan frowned. "Come to think of it, I did. Remember how you said it could have been triggered from about where we were standing? You're not wrong." She leaned out of the doorway to get another look, trying to picture the scene if someone had accidentally or on purpose released an energy blast on par with a Guardian. "There would have been Troopers or someone here at the time, right?"

"If they're here now, yes."

"And trooper armor is white..." Susan got back under cover of the doorway and puzzled it out from what she knew of her mentor. The woman never wore white and didn't drink... anymore. The white reminded her of bad things, and the alcohal used to cause disasters of the weather variety. And when and if she got mad or upset, it was never good for those on the other side. Not until Susan herself had taken up the post as planetary guardian did Taloh have her first alcohalic drink in seventy-eight years that wasn't a wine cooler. If it was Taloh, and the evidence was only solidifying that it was, then what they'd seen was likely an uncontrolled release for as yet unknown, but probably justifiable reasons. If anyone, namely white-suited Storm Troopers, had tried to stop her... it wouldn't have been good. Internally, Susan shuddered. "I think we can assume rather safely that she did. Question is, where is she now? She can't teleport on her own here, even if she remembers how to, and going by what she told me about getting caught up in that explosion and waking up a week later more than 3000 miles away, I'm not certain she would. And that blast back there would have depleted her into unconsciousness."

Carnegie sighed and stepped out of the doorway, glanced down toward the burnt and blackened building again in fascination, and looked at Susan. "We've got time to find out. And walking is good to do."

Susan nodded. "Yes, it is. Lead the way."

~*~*~*~*~*~

They spent hours walking the streets of Dorthus Tal, puzzling it all out, got a small tour of the clinic not that far from the bar, and it wasn't until they were in the middle of a residential neighborhood while walking back to the street where the alley was that things took an interesting turn. There, sitting on the front steps of a modest house in the waning light of evening, was Taloh... and that bartender. Susan had just enough time to stare in open-mouthed shock before Carnegie pulled her behind a tree and out of sight. "Hey!"

"I knew there was something off about him," Carnegie hissed at her. "We're not supposed to interfere, remember? That is not our mission."

Susan stared at Carnegie, suddenly reminded that the far older woman in front of her was the one in charge. "But she's... Wait."

"What?"

"Did she look different to you? Kind of... I don't know. Less world-weary?"

Carnegie paused and chanced a glance out from behind the tree. "You're right. Odd." She felt a warning hand on her arm and turned to find a woman with reddish eyes and black hair, wearing a lavender business suit glaring at her. "What?"

"You know what." She turned the glare on Susan. "You both know what. Or you will, even if you don't right now."

Susan, for her part, winced. "Suna, this is hardly the time for a cryptic lecture that begins with a riddle. That's Taloh over there, in a place where she shouldn't be."

Suna kept on glaring at them. "Did it ever occur to you, Susan, that you need to think outside the box? Nothing is wrong."

"I fail to see how an anomaly that results in death and mayhem isn't wrong."

Suna motioned to the two people talking on the porch on the other side of the tree. "Everything is relative and you looking at the end while you're still in the middle. Think it through, all right? It's not what you think it is."

"It's Taloh. She's on Elidar right now..." Susan cocked her head in curiosity. "Relative in what way? And what do you mean by the middle, oh wise mistress of time travel?"

"It means that you can't go over there and introduce yourself, proclaiming her a time-space anomaly when she isn't and wouldn't know what you're talking about," Suna told her in clipped, curt wording. "And, while her being here is the result of an anomaly, yes, her continued presence is not."

Susan blinked at that explanation, suddenly reminded of something. It had been the explosion... one of the worst human-caused disasters of the 20th century. If she'd been at ground zero, with the combined energy potential... it didn't make sense, but maybe it wasn't supposed to. "Oh. This is one of those paradox things that give you headaches, isn't it? If I'm living in the middle of it and not the end of it, does that mean that she's in two places at the same time?"

"From your point of view, it does. But really? No."

Susan turned to look at Carnegie, who was staring at Suna in stunned wonderment. "That make any sense to you?"

"I think so," Carnegie said slowly. "We can't go over there and talk to her, because it would just lead to confusion. Right?"

"Correct," Suna answered sternly. "And it's not your call, either. Ralarna is the only one who has a say in the matter."

Susan nodded, taking it all in. It made sense, in a way. Plus, the bartender reminded her of someone... "It's ironic, in a way."

"What is?"

"Taloh and meeting people in bars." Susan chuckled for a moment before becoming serious again. "You'll be keeping an eye on things, right?"

"Yes," Suna assured her. "More or less, anyway. Arvina more than I."

Susan turned to Carnegie. "Then we're done here. Back to that alley?"

"The less attention the better," Carnegie told her.

Suna watched them go humorlessly, and shook her head. People were weird at times... and it made her job all the more interesting, if at times frustrating.

~*~*~*~*~*~

Vincent was still on duty when Susan arrived back in the computer lab with Victoria in her arms. "How'd it go?"

"I can't give you a straight answer, you know."

Vincent shrugged. "You haven't given straight answers about weirdness in years, Sue. Why start now?"

Susan laughed at his teasing. "It's not that. Just... I was researching the anomaly that got us called in. In a very weird way, it solved itself."

"Oh?"

"With a side effect of Vong."

He wasn't certain what to say to that as he gestured for Victoria, and Susan handed her over. "Mel wants to talk to you, by the way."

"About?"

"Seems that the rescuees have a request to relay."

Susan took that in as she turned to her terminal after watching Vincent make funny faces at her baby. Smiling at hearing Victoria laugh that cute baby laugh, Susan put her headset back on and pressed the button to synch it back up with communications. "All right, Mel. What's up? It had better not be another crisis, because I gotta tell ya... I'm done for the time being with having a crisis."

["No... not a crisis. Unless a wedding is a crisis. Where'd you go, anyway?"]

Of all the things to ask. "Saw something on the scans, needed to look into it. What wedding?"

There was a pause, and then a giggle. Which was odd, because normally Melinda didn't giggle unless she was exhausted. ["Mara invited us to their wedding. You wanna come back and join us?"]

Susan turned and looked at Vincent. "Did you know about this, Vince?"

"You're free to go... Unless you want to deal with Wildcat checking in every half hour, seemingly in a panic because every time she goes on vacation, something of a crisis nature happens. Then you can stay here and enjoy monitor duty." He made some more faces at Victoria. "Because Wildcat is funny when she's panicking, right Vicky? Yes she is. Yes she is."

Susan shook her head and bit her tongue to keep from laughing. "I'm telling her you said that, you goof."

"You do, and I'll tell Carnegie about the time that you hotwired the training field's shields to fail while a water element was practicing and she was supervising."

Susan rolled her eyes. "Like she doesn't know it was me anyway. I can't go and leave my daughter with you and-"

"Sue? Stop trying to find excuses. It's our turn to give you a break." He glanced at her with raised eyebrows and she saw the concern. "Let us do it, all right? Vicky will be fine away from you for a few days." Victoria babbled in baby speak up at him and he looked meaningfully at Susan. "See? She agrees with me."

["And this might be shocking, but I agree with my brother,"] Miranda said over the comlink. ["Join us, Sue, okay? Please?"]

"Is that what the three of you want?"

"Yes." ["Yes."] The three of them answered in unison.

"Then I'll go. You're... not going to give her back to me, are you?"

"No. Go and try to enjoy yourself a little."

"It's a ship with Dawn and Elsie on it at the same time. I'll try if they do."

["One of these days, Sue,"] Elsie said suddenly, breaking into the conversation. ["You're going to do something and everybody is going to make fun of you for thirty years straight, too."]

"Ha-ha," Susan deadpanned as Vincent now had to bite back a laugh himself. "Is everybody listening in?"

["I'm pretty sure Luke and Mara aren't,"] Melinda told her gleefully. ["They're having themselves a moment in the lounge. Or were ten minutes ago."]

"Oh. Good."

~*~*~*~*~

Mara didn't want to move, she was so comfortable in his embrace. "Luke?"

"Hmm?"

"Think we could just stay in the lounge all day? I'm comfy." Well, she reflected as he kissed her, the only really comfortable thing was being in his arms. The chairs were kind of hard.

"We could, but I think they might want to use the lounge at some point," Luke teased her. He didn't want to move, either.

"Worth a thought, though, isn't it?" Whatever he'd been going to say was lost to both of them being startled as an orange flash lit up the lounge and deposited Susan in front of them.

Susan looked around, and then winced as she saw the startled expressions on their faces. "Sorry." She nodded once, and left quickly.

Mara looked at him, eyebrows raised. "Think that was intentional?"

"No. Interesting mode of transport, though."

"Weird?"

"Definitely."

Mara banished all thoughts of weirdness as she kissed him again, and then settled in to enjoy the quiet before anything else happened. Not that it would... she hoped.

 

Enroute to Coruscant…

 

Ranko stood at the food synthesizer in the small galley and sighed. She wasn't really hungry, but still wanted something to munch on. She smiled slowly as she pressed a button or two and picked up the bowl that appeared in the slot.

As she sat down at the table in the lounge, Mara and Luke passed through, and Mara glanced at what Ranko was eating and made a face. "What?"

"How can you eat that?"

Ranko frowned and looked down at her jello. "What's wrong with it?" Mara stared at her for a few seconds before leaving the lounge without replying. Ranko looked puzzledly at Luke, who sighed in consternation. "Is there something wrong with jello that I'm not aware of?"

"Mara… well, for her, the jello is a reminder of a bad time. Hospital food."

Ranko absorbed that and nodded slowly. "Ah. Sorry."

"No need…" Luke shrugged and followed his fiancé.

Ranko frowned once more, then continued to eat her jello. She understood the reaction, yes, but that didn't change the fact that the snack was still good.


	21. Chapter 21

In another part of the ship, Luke caught up to Mara. "She didn't know. You realize that, right?"

Not looking at him, Mara nodded. "I'll just be glad when we're back on Coruscant. Things like that will happen less." His silence made her look at him. "Well, it will."

"Wishful thinking and you know it."

Mara shook her head. "Just hope."

"Really? Hope for what?"

"For us. For me. Hope that I'll stop wanting to cringe every time I see something out of the corner of my eye and just trust that it isn't something wanting to grab me and make my world turn upside down all over again." Mara turned to him and saw the understanding in his eyes. "I just…"

Luke moved closer and pulled her into his arms, and whispered in her ear: "A little at a time, Mara. A little at a time."

Mara pushed him up against the wall and they kissed, hard. "Thank you," she said between kisses. "Love you."

"Love you, too." He leaned back against the wall and they stood there, embracing.

So caught up in one another were they, that they missed the transition out of hyperspace.

~*~*~*~*~*~

Elsie was in the lounge alone, cleaning tables and chairs with a rag when she noticed a bag of something under one of the tables. Bending down to pick it up, she wondered who would have brought energy bars and would have hidden them out of sight like that.

Pulling one of the wrapped bars out of the bag and turning it over in her hand, she realized that these weren't energy bars, but ration bars. The kind that… "Huh… weird."

~*~*~*~*~

As they prepared to disembark from the Wave Runner after landing in a docking bay on Coruscant's surface, Elsie picked up a bag and handed it to Luke with a smile. "I found these in the lounge under a table. They yours?"

Avoiding Mara's stare as he took the bag from Elsie, Luke nodded. "Yes. Thank you, Elsie."

"You might want to dispose of them. They're out of code." Rolling her eyes and suppressing a chuckle, Elsie walked away. "And you're welcome."

Mara waited until she was out of earshot before saying anything. "You brought the ration bars along on the trip?"

"Now is not the time, Mara."

"Sure it is. You brought those. The same ones you had with you in the hospital months ago, and you think nothing of it?"

"Can we just drop it? Please? It's not that important."

Mara's eyes narrowed and she pulled his arm so he would look at her. "No. If I can't avoid the subject, then you can't either… Tell me?"

"Taking these made me feel safe," he admitted after a long moment of silence. "That if I had them, then I wouldn't lose you again."

Mara's eyes softened and she cupped his cheek with her hand. "You won't lose me, Farmboy."

"But-" he started to say before she interrupted him.

"No. No buts. Not ever. No amount of stupidly evil, cruel kidnappers or invading forces can tear us apart. Besides, we're here and they're gone, so…"

Luke silenced her with a kiss.

 

A couple weeks from now...

 

Leah was flabbergasted. "You want to what? Why?"

Elsie sighed. "Look, I've been out of practice for ten years. I just want to get back in the groove is all."

"Getting back in the groove is one thing. This is something else entirely."

"You're only saying that because my last official case was a recipe for disaster, Leah."

"There was a reason you went on vacation, Elsie. I'm sorry Ranko pulled you off of it without my approval-"

"I'm not," Elsie interrupted.

"But until Jill clears you for work, you're not going to New Jersey, let alone another universe."

Elsie smiled and handed a folder to Leah. "Already done. Jill agreed with me."

Leah opened the folder and read the contents for a minute, then regarded Elsie with a firm stare. "This needs my approval, you know."

"And?"

"And you don't have it."

"Then what do I have to do to get it?"

Leah blinked in surprise. "You really want to go?"

"Yes."

"Fine... Six months of routine case work, then we'll see. If you pass evaluations made by Running Moon, Jill, and myself, then you may go and intern with Coruscant Law Enforcement. If not, you're back on vacation leave until Chris approves as well."

"You drive a hard bargain."

"Take it or leave it, Dusty."

"I'll take it… By the way, I've been meaning to ask you something."

"And that would be?"

"What was the big idea of saying no when Ranko paged everyone for an all team call? 'I hate snow' isn't enough of an excuse."

Leah chuckled. "She called in the middle of a rescue operation involving an avalanche."

"Huh?"

"I was on search and rescue that day."

"Oh."

"So did I miss anything fun?"

"This mission was called Operation Worldships Go Boom, if that tells you anything."

"It does, and I'm not sad I missed it."

"It was fun, though."

"I'll bet."

"And you would have loved the wedding."

Leah paused, staring at her. "What wedding? You went on a mission of mercy and ended up at a wedding?"

"The bride and groom were the ones in distress."

"You can't leave out details like that, Elsie. Tell!"

"All right…"

 

Now…

 

"Who are those people?" Leia asked as she looked over Luke's shoulder at the people also disembarking from the ship they'd arrived in. She turned to look at Mara. "And what happened? That's not the ship you left in."

"We left the Jade's Fire on the academy moon for repairs," Mara told her. "And we'll explain some of it later. For right now, though… they're friends. A bit strange, and weirdly overprotective, but friends all the same."

Leia watched as a woman with dark hair introduced the group to that nurse and those other two people who had been waiting for the ship to land with her. "Hmm... it's been a long time since I've seen anyone wear that much pink."

Mara frowned and looked. "I thought I told her that was a bad idea?"

Luke shrugged. "Melinda didn't have to listen to you, you know."

"But... oh, forget it. Never mind." Mara looked at Leia and shrugged. "Don't ask me to explain that one, because I can't."

 

The day before...

 

Iris was heading back to the nurses station when the air in the corridor seemed to ripple and a man and a woman appeared, the man in a battle stance with an expression of irritation on his face. The woman, concentrating on a circular object in her hands, paid her surroundings no mind until she smiled and put the object away.

Iris blinked, not used to people appearing in the hallway like that. "Uh… hello?"

The woman turned to look at her and smiled again. "Hi. Sorry to drop in on you like that... You can get out of the stance now, dear."

The man glanced back at her. "You sure?"

"Very. The patients aren't going to attack us."

He nodded and dropped his arms. "Just promise me there are no demons."

"There aren't. Just Jedi and aliens."

He blinked at her. "What?"

"You asked." The woman turned to Iris. "Where exactly are we?"

"Coruscant Medical Center. On Coruscant." Iris was certain she'd heard him wrong. Demons?

The woman sighed in relief. "Good… wait. Which Coruscant?" She pulled the round thing out again and peered at it. "Oh. That one… Even better."

"Where did you come from?" Iris asked as she watched the woman put the thing away again.

"Another dimension," the woman said frankly. "The stupid Frisbee kept dropping us into stupid places, and if I ever see the guy who programmed it again, I'm going to take HIM on a training trip and see how HE likes it."

The man smiled at Iris's confuzzled expression. "Sorry. We're always like this… And really, Ralarna. Dimitri probably wouldn't know what to do with our training trips even if we trained the guy in Susan's battle sims for a year with no mercy."

"I'm still going to kick his sorry butt, Whuki."

"Just tell Na Omi to follow him around with the threat of bodily harm. She'll be happy to do it."

"But I want to kick his butt."

"Why?"

"For programming that thing and not giving anyone the codes to change it."

"Oh. Well, then for that you can kick his butt."

"Um… excuse me?" Iris spoke up, catching their attention. "Who are you people?"

Ralarna smiled and held out her hand. "Ralarna Benjen-Trason."

Iris shook it. "Iris Dellona." She looked at the man in question.

"Whuki Trason."

"Pleased to meet you both. Staying long?"

Ralarna and Whuki looked at each other, and Rala frowned. "Actually, I don't know."

"You don't?"

"No, but the Frisbee says our team is here, so maybe it won't be very long."

"Huh?" Whuki asked. "This is the right place?"

"Yep. We may have missed the fun, though."

"Bummer."

"Honey, you really shouldn't watch TV ever again."

"But it's fun!"

"Uh-huh…"

 

Now…

 

Ranko stepped off the boarding ramp of the ship and looked in Moira's direction, then glanced over to where Luke and Mara were meeting Leia and smirked. "Wonder how they're gonna explain this?"

"What do you mean?" Peter asked from beside her.

"This is not the ship they left in and, among other things, Mel's wearing pink."

Peter glanced back at Melinda with a frown. "Want me to tell her to go change?"

Ranko sighed. "No. I'll do it. She probably couldn't resist so soon after a fight like the one we had."

"What makes you say that?"

"I don't ever wear red, and Susan's wearing orange, which is almost as bad as Mel's pinkness."

"And Miranda's yellow."

"That, too." Turning, she got a good look at him and saw the blue jumpsuit. "All right. So it's everybody."

Peter rolled his eyes. "Har har... Over there with Moira. Is that who I think it is?"

Ranko turned back to look over where Moira was standing with a small group of people and blinked. "What are Whuki and Rala doing here?"

Peter watched her go and then turned back to raise an eyebrow at Susan, Miranda, and Melinda. "Go change into something a little less... bright. Please?"

Melinda frowned at him. "It's protocol to wear our colors, Peter."

"I understand that, Mel. It's just... this isn't an official function and it's perfectly all right to break protocol just this once."

Miranda laughed. "All right. Come on, ladies. Let's go change into something less offensive."

"Why is orange a bad thing?" Susan wondered as she followed Miranda and Melinda back into the ship.

"What are you two doing here?" Ranko asked as she walked up to join Moira's group.

Ralarna sighed. "We took the long way." She pulled out the 'frisbee' so Ranko could see it. "I forgot that Dimitri programmed it, so getting here took a while."

"Ended up in Japan a lot, hmm?"

Whuki put his arm around Ralarna's shoulders. "In at least two different centuries, too. You'll have to get Dimitri to reprogram that thing, because I never want to go to Feudal Japan with demons ever again."

"Right... wait. Feudal Japan? And why'd you use the Frisbee instead of calling Susan?"

"Because we were on assignment when your call came through and I still had the Frisbee," Ralarna explained. "You didn't leave any coordinates in your message, so I had to guess on where you went. And I forgot that there was an easier way."

Ranko glanced at Moira, who shrugged. "You missed all the fun, you know."

"We had our own fun," Whuki grumbled.

Ralarna glanced at him. "Sweetie, you're turning green again. Stop that. You'll scare people."

"It's fine if he 'goes green', as you put it," Moira told them, breaking into the conversation.

"Actually, no. It's really not fine. Green leads to shape shifting," Whuki explained as he took several deep breaths to calm himself.

Moira frowned at him. "You shape shift?"

"He gets it from his mom. Really long story having to do with war and defection and more war." Ralarna turned to smile at Iris. "Thank you for helping us, by the way."

Iris smiled at her. "My pleasure. It's not every day that people appear out of thin air in a hospital corridor in a battle stance." She noticed the fleeting expression that flickered in Ranko's eyes and wondered. "Or is it?"

"I don't even know your name and you've made me homesick already."

Iris turned to look hard at Moira. "Where did you find these people?"

"Master Burrows introduced me to them in the Jedi Temple Library. Why?"

"You're going to have to tell that story later, you know."

"Oh, I fully intend to."

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Leia wasn't sure what the change was in their demeanors, but she wasn't going to dwell on it. They seemed closer, even though, right now, they weren't embracing, just holding hands. "So how was the run?"

Luke glanced back over his shoulder to where the other group were still talking. "Eventful."

Mara snorted. "That's one way of putting it."

Looking at the ship they'd arrived in, Leia frowned. "So why did the Jade's Fire need repairing?"

"You don't want to know."

"Oh really? It wouldn't happen to have anything to do with what I felt a week and a half ago, now would it?" At this, Leia stared hard at Luke. "Well?"

Luke sighed. "It might."

"Luke…"

"What?"

"Tell me."

He shook his head. "No. It's over, and you'd..." He broke off when he noticed her staring at him. "What?"

"What happened out there that you don't want to tell me?"

"You really want to know?" Mara asked.

Leia nodded. "I do."

"We had fun."

Luke snorted in laughter. "You're going to call it fun? We nearly died, got ourselves rescued by very strange people, were attacked by something we could see but not feel, and then helped take out interstellar invaders... and you're calling it fun?"

"Yes," Mara said simply, smiling up at him.

Luke pulled her close. "It was, wasn't it?"

"Um-hmm..." Mara looked at Leia, who was staring at them in fascination. "So, Leia... how soon can the wedding happen?"

Leia blinked in surprise and looked at her brother. "Okay, who are you and what did you do with the real Mara Jade? I don't think you brought the right one home with you."

"Ha-ha," Mara deadpanned as Luke chuckled. "I'm serious, you know."

Leia shook her head. "It's not that I don't think you're serious. It's just… It was all I could do to get you interested in it before you left. This is quite a change."

"Are you done?" Mara asked impatiently, feeling that someone was crossing the landing pad.

"Yes."

"Good."

"The wedding is scheduled for two weeks from now."

Someone tapped Mara on the shoulder and she turned to see Ranko standing there. "Hi. I just wanted to let you know that we're going to dinner with Iris's family."

Mara nodded. "Have a good time."

Ranko smiled, then looked at Leia. "You know… It's really none of my business, but… perhaps you should move their wedding date up a week? They were acting like love-struck teenagers the whole way back." And then she walked away with a smirk.

Leia stared at Ranko's retreating back, then regarded the two of them with a bemused expression. "Is that true?"

"From her perspective, it is," Luke answered. "We weren't going to go into details."

Leia looked straight at Mara and noticed that she did seem lighter, less tense, than she had been. Happy, even. "I'm curious, now... but perhaps that person whose name I don't know is correct. I'll move the date up a week. Is that all right with the two of you?"

Mara looked at Luke, and he nodded. "That sounds good to me..."

Mara and Luke were at the table in the kitchen of Luke's apartment, Leia watching with interest as Mara laid various items on the table from the trip. The personal shield devices, the extra lightsabers, and the comm devices. Even the armor and the bag of ration bars that Luke had still not disposed of.

Leia surveyed the items, wondering just why there were four lightsabers on the table when they were wearing theirs, and then turned to the two of them. "I still don't understand why you wanted me to be here. To help you unpack?"

"No, Leia." Mara said patiently. "You were having a problem with a ceremonial thing before we left, because I couldn't think of anything suitable for it."

"And this has something to do with that?"

"Yes… now let's see here…" Mara took one of the ration bars out of the bag. "This is something old and borrowed." She placed one of the shield devices next to the ration bar. "This is something new." And then a blue-handled lightsaber. "And this is something blue."

Luke had to stifle a snort of laughter at the expression of near-shock Leia's face.

Mara considered the objects that she'd laid out. "I think I'll have to talk to Jari'kyn about working pockets into the design... And Leia?"

"Yes?" Leia asked when she found her voice.

"We'll need a weapons check and a metal detector."

"We will?" Luke questioned. At her expression of incredulity, he sobered. "Oh, that's right. We will..."

 

Later…

 

Mara leaned back into Luke as they esconded themselves on his couch after Leia had left. "There's still one thing that's bothering me."

"Oh?"

"I've been thinking about it way too long, but… Why don't I remember the trip back to Coruscant afterward? Leia mentioned that you stopped on Saccoria, and then here, but... I don't remember that. Why not?" She could feel the motion as he shook his head at the question. "Luke?"

"You… weren't awake, right after. And on the way to Saccoria, you slept." He took a deep breath, then spoke again. "And then... well..."

"Well what?"

"You don't remember being seen by medical personelle on Saccoria because, when they started to treat you, you woke up in the middle of it and... leaked. With the Force."

"I what?" She hadn't expected to hear that at all.

"Things started hitting medical personelle that were trying to help you," he explained, his voice tinged with emotion that she could feel coming from him. "I hadn't expect it, or I'd have told them to wake you first. As it was, it was a good thing I stayed close by."

She turned her head to look up at him, noticing that he was staring out the window at the darkening sky. "So then what happened?"

"I had to get you to calm down and the only way to do that that I could think of was a healing trance. It wasn't easy, but..."

"Ah. So what was the word to wake me up?"

"Sand dune."

"Huh?"

"It had to be a word or phrase no one would use by mistake and that was the only thing I could think of right then."

"Oh."

Luke pulled something out of his pocket and handed it to her. "Here. A nurse gave me those on Saccoria because she thought I looked exhausted. I didn't use them."

Mara turned the container over in her hands, not understanding what it was at first, then she looked at him again. "Why didn't you use them?"

"Someone had to be alert."

Mara reached over and set the container on the floor, then relaxed again. "So that's why you looked so haggard, hmm?"

"Yes. I was… well… worried. So I didn't sleep all that much."

"And by that you mean at all?"

"Not until…" Luke paused a moment, thinking, then glanced over at the feline that was watching them. "All right… not until Iris made me go home, and I picked up Dark Star on the way. Dark Star purred me to sleep that night."

Mara looked from him, to the feline, then back again. "You slept with my cat?"

The sheer sillyness of that question made Luke chuckle. "It's more that she sat on me and then curled up into a ball and refused to move, really."

Mara smiled and coaxed Dark Star to come sit on her lap. "That's my Dark Star. Thanks, girl." Dark Star got up into Mara's lap, curled up, and began to purr.

They were soon asleep, lulled by the furry purring machine on Mara's lap as Mara rested peacefully against him.

They didn't wake up until morning.


	22. Chapter 22

Four days to the wedding...

 

Peter entered the lounge on the Wave Runner, noticed that his wife seemed distracted by whatever was on her note pad, and looked over her shoulder to see what she was working on... She was working on math equations? "What is that?"

"Stop looking over my shoulder and sit down, dear. It's distracting when you do that." She glanced up at him and smiled.

Peter nodded and sat down across from her. "You didn't answer my question."

"Something medical."

"In math talk?"

"Yes." She looked over her equations again, frowned, and changed something. "There. That works better... This is for a rare nerve disease that, while rare here, still wreaks havok when it does appear."

Peter watched while she wrote the whole thing out again on another sheet of paper. "Nerve disease?"

"Yes."

"We're technically on vacation, you know."

"No, we're not, and I wanted to do this. It's a matter of personal pride and I'm stepping in just this once to save someone some heartache so they can save themselves from stupidity."

Peter blinked in surprise when she started muttering in Greek about things what should not be done with machines, and how a person's life force was sacred. What in the heck?

{{Stupid technology shouldn't even have been used in the darn EU! I don't care if it was a partial success, it was still wrong!}}

"What are you talking about?"

She just glared at him and went back to her equations. "Doesn't matter."

"If you're upset enough to switch languages, yes it does." Partial success with tech? Huh? Then he thought about what she'd said about a person's life force being sacred and things that shouldn't be done with machines... "Wait. Tell me you don't mean what you think I mean."

"Think about what galaxy we're in and what part of the time line this is, Peter."

"I didn't get as much into it as you did, she who kept her book collection in the closet."

"Oh for the love of zebras, here." She passed a notepad to him.

Peter frowned as he read the contents. "What does this have to do with... oh. I get it. Need help with those equations?"

"I've pretty much got a handle on it now, Peter... Summer talked me through the basic medical theory, Savage threw in her two cents, Iris provided the information on it, and Elsie... actually provided something useful. It was about a guy who got hit by a subway train, granted, but it was helpful." She looked up at him, then back down at her equations. "I'm just glad I didn't have to try to figure out that stupid Vong disease."

"Subway train?"

"She who talks to ghosts, remember?"

"Ah. Right... kinda makes one wonder why she decided to study animal medicine, doesn't it?"

"A bit."

"So... what are we calling this one?"

Ranko stopped writing and looked at him thoughtfully. "Operation Save The Guy And Stop The Girl From Doing Something Really Dumb?"

Peter paused. "I like it."

"Besides, I had to do something useful, while everyone else helps with the preparations and such."

Peter watched as she dropped her gaze to the table, an unreadable expression on her face. "I know it wasn't your fault, Ranko."

She tilted her head in confusion. "Huh?"

"I knew you didn't fry everything on purpose when you ran to me and imitated Shampoo."

"Funny," she said as he took her hand in his.

"I'm a funny man... You weren't even going to use that technique, were you?"

Ranko shook her head. "Not with all the energy bombs around, no. If anything, I was going to take my turn and make very potent ones, not fry everything in a thousand foot radius."

"How do you feel?"

Ranko sighed at the concerned expression in his eyes. "Not as charbroiled as I did... now, anyway. It'll be a while before I can do anything power-related while not in armor, so... It's probably a good idea to try playing normal basketball?"

"Basketball?"

"If you want... but your shadow? It's not playing."

"Spoilsport."

"You're the one with the animated shadow, Peter. It cheats."

"And electrifying the ball isn't cheating?"

Ranko just smiled at him. "Didn't say that." Peter rolled his eyes at her and she giggled.

~*~*~*~*~*~

"So why do you have a deck of cards in your sub pocket?" Elsie asked after they'd been playing for ten minutes.

Melinda chuckled. "Because we once got kidnapped by an evil witch while on a training trip and were completely bored the entire time with nothing to do but comfort our fellow detainees."

Chris frowned at her. "Kidnapped by an evil witch?"

"Who either wanted to just cause a ruckus or destroy the planet. You know... Rita?"

"Oh. That witch." He paused for a moment, looking at his cards, then looked at Melinda again. "How did you all manage to get kidnapped?"

"I have never understood that one, myself. One minute we were mingling with this crowd, the next... us and more than five thousand other people were kidnapped via teleportation or some such thing."

"Could also have been the fact that we don't use power coins," Ranko pointed out. "Our power signature is different, so we weren't excluded from the en masse kidnapping." She glanced at Melinda. "Do you have a queen?"

"Go fish... and why didn't you have anything to occupy us with in your pocket then, Ranko?"

Ranko picked up a card and frowned at it. "Because I left everything but a pad of paper at home for that trip. The only thing we could have done was origami, and Sam refused to try it, even though she was bored to tears and pouting the entire six hours we were trapped."

"Six hours?" Moira asked from her spot near the door.

"Yeah. Long story about why that was, really." Ranko paused, then looked back at Moira. "Well... not really long, just complicated. A team of rangers got their butts handed to them by the big bad that decided to be badder than usual, and then there was a chink in some zord programming that saved the day. Funny story, really, except for the part where we got kidnapped with everyone else."

"Ah..." Moira glanced around the living room, counting people with her eyes. There were two missing. "Where are Ralarna and Whuki?"

"I sent them back to the Wave Runner when they started to argue," Peter told her.

"Peter, do you have a three?" Melinda asked, trying to keep the game going. "And what were they arguing about?"

Peter handed her a card and rolled his eyes. "Whuki took that comment about Kitara personally and said something about Rala's mom that she took... badly. It just kind of degraded from there."

"Oh... are we going to be able to fly the ship when they're done?"

"Probably."

"Susan, do you have a four?"

"Go fish, Mel."

"Darn."

Moira glanced at Elsie as Melinda picked up a card from the deck. "Why aren't you playing?"

"Because she cheats," Peter explained before Elsie could say anything. "The only card game she plays fairly is Uno, but we didn't have one of those."

"Actually, it's more that I don't play Go Fish," Elsie said as she threw a glare at Peter. "Careful, Shadow Man. I know a ghost or three who wouldn't mind haunting you."

"Running Moon wouldn't do that."

"Sure she would."

"So... they had an argument about their mothers?"

"Whuki was upset about that crack that Rala made about his mother, so he made a crack about Taloh's two-thousand year long depressive episode... and it just kinda escalated from there," Ranko unhelpfully explained. "Whuki's mother was a medical interrogator who defected to the other side, and Rala's mother is a..."

"Was," Susan corrected.

"Thank you, Susan... Was a planetary guardian."

"Oh. I still don't understand, but..."

"A planetary guardian with depression, which is why it's a little sensitive for Rala... Whose turn is it?"

"Mine," Susan said. "Sure you don't want to just talk?"

"Very sure."

"Okay... Have any queens?" Susan grinned as Ranko forked over three queens. "Thank you. Peter, do you have any ones?"

"Go fish, Sue... Amy, do you have any kings?"

Moira stared at Ranko as Peter had to go fishing for a card. "I still don't understand..."

"That's why they had an argument. Because his mother was a concientious defector, and hers was a depressed planetary guardian, and they both know all the right buttons to push. That, and I think they needed to explode after hearing about the trip to get here that they were on."

"Anyone would," Amy agreed. "Ranko, do you have any sixes?"

Ranko surrendered two of her cards and Amy smiled as she laid down a set of four cards. "I knew I should have asked you for those. Elsie, why didn't you at least hint?"

"Because that would have been wrong and Lisa isn't here to give headaches to."

"She doesn't get those as often anymore," Chris reminded her.

"True."

"Mel, do you have any eights?"

"Go fish."

"Darn. Ranko, are you sure you don't have an UNO deck or something?"

"I stopped carrying it a long time ago, so yes I'm sure. It was a distress call, and what would I have done with an Uno deck, anyway? Thrown it at the Vong?"

"How about a laser tag set?"

"No."

"A chess board?"

"Just how much do you think I can fit in my subpocket?"

"You fit your luggage in there, so why not a chess board?"

"Need I remind you that I wasn't the one carrying a deck of cards?"

Melinda rolled her eyes. "I am so glad I moved to Planet Bob and got to miss stuff like this... How are the kids, Susan?" When the question was met with silence, Melinda glanced over to find that Susan was staring at her cards. "Sue?"

"Kathy got married a year ago, and..." Susan didn't raise her eyes to look at anyone, just kept staring down at her cards.

Ranko turned and looked at her when the silence continued, then pulled Susan into a tight hug. "It's okay, Sue."

"I miss him."

"I know you do." Over the top of Susan's head, Ranko shared a look with Melinda, who was openly frowning in puzzlement. "I'll tell you later, Mel..."

"Um... Right. Anyone have a ten?"

 

The Next Day...

 

Mara sighed as she listened and occasionally got a word in edgewise while Leia told her about the plans. She was beginning to think that leaving Leia to plan it on her own had been a bad decision, that this whole thing had gotten out of hand. "...all right. Why the simulcast? I don't think it's really needful that it be live."

"Why not? It'll show unity."

"Because it feels like an invasion of privacy."

"And Luke is a public figure." Leia saw the frown and shook her head. "He's a hero, and people need to see their heroes going about their lives as normal people."

"So it's not some political thing?" Leia's silence at that question was deafening, and Mara pushed away from the table with a heavy sigh. "All right. Fine. Have the simulcast if you want it. I'll talk to Luke about the thing... but I want it on a time delay."

"I'm sorry?" Leia asked as she watched Mara stand up.

"That's my condition. You want to show our wedding to the galaxy, fine, but not as it happens. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go help my fiancé with lightsaber training. Should be fun."

Leia watched her go, then couldn't help but sigh in relief. "That went well."

Mara entered the academy's women's locker rooms and set her gym bag down with a frustrated sigh.

"Wedding planning going well?" Dawn's voice asked from the next bench over as she put on a gray-colored gi.

"Yeah."

"That good, huh?" Dawn smiled at the expression Mara threw her way. "Be glad that Leia's not making you pull names out of a hat to decide on what type of ceremony you're going to have."

Mara paused and looked at Dawn in confusion. "What?"

"My husband's aunt's wedding ceremony was decided that way because her and Ranko's father couldn't make up their minds and argued all the time. Long story, really, and I never got all the details because she doesn't like to talk about it..."

Mara stared at Dawn for a really long minute, before shaking her head. Just when she'd thought there were no more surprises to be had where these people were concerned... "Right... if you say so."

Dawn put on her shoes and flashed another smile at Mara. "See ya out there."

"I thought this was just lightsaber training?"

"We needed a bit of sparring practice, but we're not training with your trainees."

"Oh. Yes, I'll be out in a minute or two."

Dawn nodded and left Mara to her thoughts as she changed.

Amy crossed her arms and waited while Elsie donned a practice gi. "I heard about that incident you had on the worldship, by the way."

"Really? Well everyone heard about you getting knocked on your butt and making Ranko have an episode, so I guess we're even." Elsie glanced at her and sighed. "I'm sorry, A.J."

"Don't be. I shouldn't have gotten knocked on my butt."

They spent a moment or two in companionable silence before Elsie spoke again. "It was just that I walked right through it. If I hadn't, I wouldn't have known it was even there."

"And?"

"And what? It was just a bit of a shock is all."

"But it wasn't a picnic, either."

"True... You're not going to let me just forget about it, are you?"

"Nope. That's how you ended up on the extended vacation in the first place."

"Cute, Amy. Real cute... and aren't you going to join the practice session?" Elsie raised an eyebrow at the casual attire that her teammate was sporting.

"What? You don't think this would do?"

"No."

Amy laughed, and reached into her duffle bag to pull out her own work out clothes. "Quite right. It really wouldn't do to be practicing in slacks."

Elsie stared as Amy set the copper-colored gi on the bench. "Am I the only one who wasn't in on the color-coding?"

"Blame my mother-in-law for this. Aniya demanded it for training on Elidar. Me, I'd have rather worn sweats or something, but Nathan thinks I look good in it, so..."

"Ah. What's it like training with Time Guardians, anyway?"

"Well... I'm not ever sparring with my husband's aunt again, if that tell's you anything."

"It... all right. It doesn't."

"It's one thing to be drenched by water or thrown into a wall by an air element. It's entirely another when your sparring partner turns into a big purple dragon and scares the living daylights out of you."

"Oh. Right... that makes sense, I guess."

"And how's your basic martial arts skills?"

"I did just fine on the world ship, you know."

Amy rolled her eyes as she tied her top closed with a cloth belt. "That was in armor, Dusty... And you're sparring with me today. Peter's orders."

"Huh?"

"That's the reason I asked about the basic."

"Great. Remind me to tell Running Moon to haunt him when we get home."

"He doesn't deserve that and you know it."

"But the thought is so tempting."

"You know he only wants to be certain of our training and safety."

"Then how come Whuki and Rala get to sit out if we can't?"

"Because they're on a training trip breather and we just... oh. You're right. That's really not fair."

Elsie chuckled as they walked out of the locker room. She stopped at one of the rows and saw Mara changing. "Mara? I thought you were going through the preparations today?"

"Had to take a break," Mara muttered. "Be out in a minute."

"Well, all right..." Elsie turned to look at Amy. "Think we should wait?"

"Not from the tone of her voice."

"Right. Let's go."

~*~*~*~*~*~

Susan watched as the trainees were led through lightsaber excersizes in the academy's gymnasium facility by more experienced Jedi in groups around the room. Luke and Mara were leading the beginners in a basic drill, and she couldn't help but take note of the holes in the defensive patterns. "I don't think they'd last through one of Ethan's combat sessions right now. Too many holes."

Next her, Miranda sighed. "They're just trainees, Susan... but yes. That thought had crossed my mind, too." She motioned to a blond who looked out of place in the brown Jedi garb. "That one over there... Needs to work on her footing. Her balance is a bit off."

Susan paused, and turned to look at her with a grin. "Hey... you wanna spar?"

"Aren't you restricted to sims right now, Sue?"

"That's for home, not here."

Miranda winced as the trainee she'd been watching lost her balance and fell hard on her rear. "Powers or no powers?"

"No powers."

"Weapons or hand to hand?"

"Weapons... but you're not allowed to give me a concussion."

"Deal." Miranda, refusing to say that all she needed to do was wear a helmet to avoid getting a concussion (not true), went to go get her batons out of her sub-pocket inconspicuously. After all, it just wouldn't do to pull them out of nowhere and startle a bunch of Jedi with lethal blades of light in their hands.

When she returned, Susan was holding twin katanas and smirking. "Where did you get those?"

"Amy," Susan said as she to their teammate who was practicing hand to hand with Elsie while Chris watched from nearby. "She said I should at least use something like your batons if I was serious about sparring with weapons."

Miranda laughed. "Right... Let's have at it, shall we?"

As they started lashing out, the repeated clang of metal on metal began to drown out that of lightsabers. The Jedi trainees (and, for that matter, the Jedi leading the session), from all corners of the large room, turned to see where all the noise was coming from, and saw two women, one in orange, the other in yellow, sparring with more grace than they were used to seeing.

When the two of them started incorporating crazy martial arts moves, jaws began to drop.

~*~*~*~*~*~

Ranko, as she'd been running late, entered the training area and had to stop and stare at the spectacle of every Jedi in the room watching her teammates as they went all out in semi-controlled armed combat. Shaking her head in resignation, Ranko headed over to where Luke and Mara were standing. "Did they tell you that they were going to do that?"

Luke, watching with a keen interest, shook his head. "No... I don't recognize the style, but it certainly is effective."

Ranko turned back, evaluating her teammates on their own merits. She could see some things in the patterns, but... "Hmm... have to ask them to show me that later... Susan needs more practice with twin katanas, and Miranda is going to kick her butt eventually."

"What makes you think that?"

"Experience. Miranda is lethal with those things and Susan isn't wearing a helmet... Not that the helmet would do much good..." She blinked in surprise when they switched weapons so they each had one katana and one baton. "Then again..."

"We could use some of those moves in lightsaber combat, couldn't we?" Mara asked after a moment in curiosity.

"Some, yes... What is she?" Ranko watched as Susan tossed Miranda's baton in the air, Miranda tossed the katana, they switched weapons again, and Susan pulled out her staff and put the katanas away all in one fluid motion. "Oh. I didn't think she could do that in mid-movement with the Thunderstaff..."

"What was it like in actual practice?" Mara asked Luke directly.

"Better than what you're seeing now," Luke told her, his eyes still analyzing every move. "That staff is the weapon she has the most experience with, isn't it?"

"Yes..." Ranko blinked again when Miranda copied Susan and pulled out the Shadow Glaive and put the batons away. Frowning, she turned to see if Peter was in the immediate area. She wouldn't have been able to do that if he weren't. Ah, he was over with Melinda, going through some excersizes with bo staffs. Satisfied, Ranko turned back to watch the combat spar again. "It's her weapon of choice, though we're trained to use each other's weapons to varying degrees... Want me to stop them or let it continue for a bit?"

"Let it continue. It's good to have a demonstration like this, and I want to see what they do next."

"Probably pull out Melinda's mallets."

"Mallets?" Mara asked, disbelief in her voice.

"Uh-hmm... You'd be surprised how much you can do with blunt trauma and brute force."

"Oh. That makes sense, I guess."

Ranko let it go for a few more minutes before interfering. "Break!"

Miranda and Susan stopped, put the weapons away, bowed to one another, and then turned to look at their team leader in expectation. They were both breathing heavy, but that was to be expected.

"All right, you two. Enough of that."

"But..." Susan began before earning a hard glare from her sister. Then she noticed that everyone in the room were all focused on them. "Oh. Right. Sorry."

Ranko turned to look at Mara with a slight smirk. "Could you use some combat instructors for the day, since they seem to be up to it?"

Mara glanced at Luke in question, he nodded, and then Mara smiled. "Good idea."

Ranko turned back to Miranda and Susan and shook her head. "Go take a five, catch your breath, and then get your butts back here. You've just been drafted because of that stunt and will be helping the Jedi... Good form, though."

Miranda nodded, then grabbed Susan's arm, and they walked away with smiles on their faces.

"Ranko, did you have to stop them?" Amy asked from where she continued to lead Elsie through excersizes. "That's the best I've seen Susan do unarmored in months."

"Well... yes. You're right, though."

Luke shook his head for a moment, then looked around at the twenty or so trainees. "All right, everybody. Distraction over. Back to training."

Mara noticed that Ranko was carrying a lightsaber hilt and frowned. "Where did you get that?"

"From the weapons storage locker on the Wave Runner. I figured that if this was a training session with Jedi, then it was best to be prepared... the balance is weird, though. I'm used to a sword where the weight is in the blade. Wish I'd thought to bring mine along, but I didn't know where we were going at first, so I didn't think of it."

Mara stared at her. "Right... Wait. You have a lightsaber of your own?"

"Yep. The reason Moira had our signal device is because we've been here before. Shortly after the Battle of Naboo, in fact. And we were temporarily living in the Jedi Temple at the time. Hmm..." Ranko studied Mara's face for a moment, suddenly realizing something. Mara bore a passing resemblance to an agricultrual trainee she'd met very briefly. "Wish I could remember that trainee's name..."

"Huh?"

"You look like her, a little." Ranko shrugged at the inquisitive expression that Mara was throwing at her. "Part of that time is a blur, and there were a lot of people there. Plus, it was 35 years ago and we were trying to get home, so I'm lucky I remember that Moira's mom teased her in writing about Master Burrows tying her to a chair... Anyway, let's get to it, shall we?"

Mara nodded. "Yes... how well can you use that?"

"I'm expert with a long sword, but a bit clumsy with a lightsaber. Why?"

"This is a training session, after all." Mara grinned at the amused expression. "Actual training wouldn't be unheard of here."

"True."

Ranko spent the next several hours learning how to properly handle a lightsaber, and keeping an eye on a certain two draftee instructors as they went from group to group and helped out. She noticed that Miranda spent a very long twenty minutes helping a blonde trainee find her proper balance center and had to wonder what had happened to make Miranda focus on that particular training point...

~*~*~*~*~*~

Susan was busy helping to set out party favors for the small party they were having while the menfolk went out and did the bachelor party thing with the groom, when Ranko approached her. "Hi."

"I think now would be the perfect time to give it to her."

"Now? Why now?"

Ranko glanced toward where Mara was sitting down and watching Jaina and Jacen play with their toys. "Because if we wait, we'll have to explain to more than just her."

"Ah. Good point… Give me a minute."

Ranko nodded and left Susan to finish her task.

Mara watched while Jacen and Jaina played quietly with their toys, smiling slightly when Jaina protested because Jacen had taken a block away from her.

"Mara?" a voice asked, hesitantly.

Mara looked away from the twins to see Susan standing there with a package in her hands, and Ranko standing behind her. "What is it?"

Susan came closer and sat down. "Ranko and I spent a while talking about what to get you for a wedding present, and… well, here."

Mara slowly took the wrapped object from Susan and looked at it. "Why?"

"Don't ask why," Ranko told her with a smile. "Just open it… and, besides… if we have to put up with our mother springing something like this on us, then we get to do it for you."

Mara frowned as she unwrapped the present, then she stared at it. It was a hard-bound book with a purple cover and a design in gold. The design was of a woman holding a baby and sitting in a rocking chair. "It's beautiful… what's it for?"

"This is a baby journal," Susan explained as Mara opened it to find blank pages.

"But I'm not-"

"Not now, no. But someday?"

Mara closed the book and sat there a moment, looking at Susan. "I... Thank you."

"You're welcome," Susan told her with a smile.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Ever since they'd landed and gotten sort of settled, Susan couldn't get what Suna had said out of her mind. _"It's for Ralarna to decide."_ Well... for whatever reason, Rala was here, and it was only right that she know.

Ralarna, sitting on the couch across from her and reading a book, sighed. "Spit it out already, would you?"

"What?"

"Whatever has had you tense and sneaking looks at me when you think I'm not paying attention. Because I am paying attention, Susan, and normally there are three things that make you tense: world savage, family, and guardian duties." Ralarna set the book down, glad for once that Peter and Chris had dragged Whuki somewhere.

Susan paused, uncertain of how to phrase it at first. It was weird, even by their standards. But, looking at Ralarna now... maybe weird was good? "There was an anomaly when all was said and done."

"Oh?"

Susan nodded, trying to find just the right words. "When I got to finally look at the results of the scan, it turned out that it happened all along. It... wasn't something I expected."

"Why not?"

"Because the anomaly is, or rather was, your mother. And by that, I mean her getting caught up in an explosion... more than fifty years ago our time. Which, I'm here to tell you, is shocking enough without Suna showing up and keeping us from talking to her."

Ralarna stared at her, at first not absorbing the information being presented. None of that made any sense. "Huh?"

"For us, she's in two places at the same time. Only, according to Suna, it's all relative and really she isn't because we're the ones looking at it wrong." Susan stared at her hands for a while. "And I think I understand, but... I'd rather not. Really would rather not, because that means I know way too much and the person who trained me is dying and I don't think I can take that. Not now. Not ever."

Staring gave way to blinking in confusion, which gave way to concern as she watched Susan stare at her hands. Finally, Ralarna got up and moved to sit next to her. "Don't think that way. And Mom's known for a while... has since she finally let Summer do a medical work up and they discovered that the radiation did actually affect her. This just adds something extra. And help me to understand, okay? I'm still confused. She's in two places at the same time, only Suna said you were looking at it from the wrong perspective?"

Susan nodded. "Yes." She frowned as Ralarna pulled out a piece of paper and drew an odd-looking figure on it. It started as a curvy line, and then she put an X at the half-way point and branched a line off of it, drew another X at the end of the first line, and near the start of the first one drew yet another X, and then connected the two lines back up with a weird-looking loop-de-loop. "What is that?"

"I'm thinking outside the box and I need a visual aide. The X on the first line is the explosion that caused your anomaly, and the second line is our resulting thing that we're looking at from the wrong perspective."

"And the weird loop-de-loop?"

"Fusion into one person again, however that'll happen. Or maybe it did already."

Susan nudged Ralarna's knee. "There are days when I think you should have been Guardian instead of me. This is one of 'em."

Ralarna chuckled and handed the paper to Susan. "I've just listened to more philosophy lectures than you have. Most of those from Mom and Suna, actually. And I'm glad it's you and not me."

Susan studied the drawing, trying to make sense of it. The visual aide definitely helped. "Think our lives will ever stop riding the oddness roller coaster?"

"We're Rangers, Sue. Of course not."

"Suna said it was your call, by the way. On weather to let her know or let it be."

Ralarna sighed, knowing it was that or pitching a fit on the unfairness of it all that'd suck all the light out of the room. "I'll deal with that when the time comes."

"Rala?"

"Yes?"

"You're absorbing all the light. Stop it, okay?"

They looked at each other for half a minute before dissolving into laughter that helped the tension, as well as the sudden darkening of shadows, in the room evaporate. Ralarna felt better after laughing, and sighed as she looked at the diagram on the piece of paper in Susan's hand again. "I still don't understand how exactly it is that this resulted in the Yuuzhan Vong appearing out of nowhere way, way early, Susan. A couple dimensions removed, at that."

"Okay, as I understand it, and I don't completely," Susan said as she answered. "When the energies mixed and threw half of her elsewhere across dimensions, things kind of went kerplooie and there was a domino effect."

["With, as Sue told me a couple days ago, a side effect of Vong,"] Vincent put in over the comlink, startling them both. ["And you're not wrong about it being weird. Even for us, it's weird."]

Ralarna frowned at Susan, wondering why the comlines were open for something that was so hush-hush. "Vincent knows?"

Susan rolled her eyes in frustration. "Not everything. I wasn't as subtle as I could have been when I put my monitor to screen lock and he caught me. And he better keep it to himself, too."

"Ah."

["You think I want to be the one to tell Ranko that it's more than a 'cooincidence of extra-dimensional proportions that solved itself?' Heck no. I'm surprised she didn't ask more questions when you said that."]

"So was I. Which reminds me," Susan said as she pulled a package out of her subpocket and handed it to Ralarna. "Haven't had time to decontaminate it yet, but you'll be wanting this."

"What is it?" Ralarna asked as she went to open the package and Susan stayed her hand as a warning.

"It's your mom's sash from that outfit she was wearing. Found it where she landed and picked it up without thinking. Had to get treatment afterward, or I wasn't going to so much as go near Victoria."

So that's why it was so heavy. Lead lined. "How high is the rad count?"

"As it set off a medic's radiation patch sensor thing from more than five feet away when it was in my subpocket on Sacorria, you don't want to know."

Ralarna considered that answer and decided not to open the obviously lead-lined package, even for a look. "Why give it to me?"

"Because it's your call and this is proof. If you need an excuse to go and have a look for yourself, here it is." Susan paused as she heard Vincent snort in laughter. "Somehow, I think my cousin is finding this hilarious."

["Not really."]

Ralarna frowned at Susan for a long moment. "What were you doing talking to a medic on Sacorria?"

Susan looked away, avoiding eye contact and started fidgeting with her hands. "Overcoming something."

"Sue, you talk to medical people all the time, how is it different?" It made sense, though. No one had talked about Victor, not in months, and she knew with utter certainty that the woman hadn't so much as gone near medical facilities unless absolutely necessary. Even Victoria's well-baby checks were house calls that a family member, usually Ranko or Savage, made.

Susan kept her gaze averted for the longest time and Ralarna waited her out, knowing it went deeper than it seemed to an unwary person. When Susan finally looked at her, Ralarna wanted to back away from the pain she saw reflected in those eyes. She didn't, and instead grabbed her hand in an effort to make whatever it was easier. "It needed to be someone I didn't know, Rala. Someone who didn't know me, giving me a tour of a clinical setting as if I hadn't grown up walking those halls my entire life, in a place I had never really been before. And when we happened upon that clinic, I just knew I that if I didn't take the opportunity, I wouldn't."

Ralarna half expected a crack from the peanut gallery, but Vincent wisely said nothing. She was so getting him a chocolate rabbit when this was over. "Did it help?"

"Yes."

"Then your cousin and I are glad that you took the opportunity." She leaned closer, knowing that wasn't the whole story. There was fear in those eyes, fear she knew from having looked into her mother's eyes countless times over the years. Fear that, one by one, everyone she knew would die and she would be the last one standing... that history would repeat itself. "And I want you to know that, as long as you live, you will not ever be alone."

Susan stared back, taking in the sincerity, and tried to smile. It didn't quite end up a smile and there were tears threatening to spill. "Is that a promise?"

"It is."

Susan finally let herself relax a little, but not completely. "Thank you for saying it, even if it ends up not being true."

"Susan, you're too young for gallows humor."

"Some days, it doesn't feel that way."

On Elidar, sitting in a computer lab and listening, Vincent let out the breath he'd been holding in, afraid it would interrupt the slow healing magic he was listening to. Slowly, a little at a time, wounds left by tragedy were being exposed, cleaned, and healed. It was good to know that everything would eventually get back to some semblance of normal, if not precisely normal. What he wouldn't give to return everything to rights again... and have absent friends here and now, rather than just as memories.

A hand on his shoulder made him jump and he turned to find Emanee standing there with Victoria in her arms. "What?"

"My turn to take a shift, Ice Britches. Besides, I think Vicky here wants you." When he hesitated, she handed him the baby and pointed to the door. "You. Break. Now. Medical prerogative."

"But-"

"No arguing. Go."

Vincent hesitated another moment, and then heeded her command. It was best not to argue when medical prerogative was put on the table. That meant a lot of things he'd really rather not think about, starting and ending with permanently being assigned to research duty when not on medical leave. And sometimes it actually did mean 'you are NOW on medical leave and no, you don't get to argue.' "An hour?"

"Or three."

Right. He'd make himself scarce for a while. He hadn't gotten to spend much time with his baby cousin, anyway.

~*~*~*~*~*~

The Wild Karrde arrived the day before the wedding, and Mara, with her temporary roommate in tow, went to greet Karrde at the space port.

"You really didn't have to come with me, Dawn," Mara told her as they waited. "I'm very capable of meeting people in space ports on my own." And it was kind of getting old, always having a Wave Ranger shadow.

"I know you are, Mara," Dawn replied calmly. "I just really, really want to meet Karrde."

"You are not allowed to ask for his autograph."

Dawn laughed at the reminder. "No, wasn't going to do anything of the sort. Besides... I left my autograph book at home along with my small shrine to movie stars." There was a long pause as Mara turned to stare at her with wide eyes. "What?"

"Shrine to what?"

"We all have layers, Mara. Some more wacky than others. And, to be honest, I got rid of the shrine in 2038."

Mara frowned at her. She'd come to expect oddness from the group as a whole, what with two of them having a sparing freeforall with weapons in the middle of lightsaber practice the day before, but it was the little tidbits about their lives that, at times, made little to no sense... picking a wedding ceremony out of a hat as a solution to arguing came to mind as one of those things. "Right."

Dawn shrugged. "Sorry. Been trying not to weird you out. Sometimes, it's just too easy, though... Yes, Vincent, I know that I know better. Thank you."

Mara blinked, suddenly reminded that it wasn't just the two of them here, but three. "Is he still sitting at a monitor somewhere?"

Dawn nodded and motioned to the landing pad on which the ship had landed and people were now getting out. "In between people relieving him a lot, yes."

Mara let it drop and went to greet Talon Karrde.

Talon took a long hard look at the woman slowly walking to greet him and smiled knowingly. She looked better, more confident than she had a month ago. "The run went well?"

"Not hardly," Mara told him lightly. "Don't go to Lamarred any time soon."

"Oh?"

"And the cargo ended up on Tatooine." She handed him a credit pouch. "And that's just what I can tell you without taking three hours to explain the entirety of it."

Talon glanced at the credit pouch in his hand, took in the fact that she was sidestepping explaining why the cargo had ended up on Tatooine instead, and nodded. "All right... who is the woman coming up behind you?"

Mara sighed. "You want the long or short version?"

"Short?"

"Temporary room mate." Mara nodded to the woman. "Dawn, this is Talon Karrde."

Dawn held out her hand, which Talon hesitantly took. "Dawn Ryan."

Talon nodded and shook her hand. Things... were not adding up. "Mara?"

"Yes?"

"You will be explaining everything at some point, won't you?"

Mara laughed. "As soon as I'm able to and there are no prying ears, yes."

"Good." He studied Dawn for a moment, finding something off... she seemed older than she looked. Interesting. After a moment, Dawn released her grip on his hand, and he let go. "So..."

Mara glanced at the assembled group behind him. "Come on. Let's get everybody settled, then we'll talk. Big day tomorrow, after all."

As they followed her from the landing pad, Karrde could have sworn he heard a stifled giggle from Dawn.


	23. Chapter 23

Mara was woken out of an uneasy sleep by a knock on her door in the wee hours of the morning on the day of her wedding. Grumbling, she went to go answer it, only to find her future sister-in-law and three other familiar people standing there, looking way too perky for 5:30 in the morning. "What is the meaning of this?"

Leia smiled and held the door open with her foot when Mara tried to close it. "We're here to help you get ready."

Mara looked at her tiredly. "At oh-five-thirty?"

"Yes."

"The wedding isn't until 1500, Leia."

Leia had to supress a chuckle at the expression of mild annoyance that Mara was giving her. "Yes, and that means we have plenty of time if we start now."

Mara glanced down at Leia's foot that was holding the door open, then glared at her. "Right. You start. I'm going back to bed." With a nudge of the Force, she pushed Leia back and shut the door.

Leia looked at her companions after Mara shut the door on them. "Think we should have waited another hour?"

"Perhaps," Amy said with a smirk. "Just be glad Dawn's a heavy sleeper, or she'd be mad at us, too."

Leia frowned. "What?"

Amy just shrugged and smiled.

~*~*~*~*~*~

When Mara woke up on her own two hours later, she was greeted by her Force sense telling her that there was more than one other person in the apartment... and the smell of caf. She sat up with a sigh, and then noticed Dawn standing in the doorway.

"Who let you in," she asked, her voice laced with sarcasm.

"You did," Dawn answered as she handed her a cup of caf. "Sorry my team mates and your future sister-in-law pulled that stunt on you earlier. If it weren't for the fact that I'm such a deep sleeper, I'd have gotten the door."

Mara accepted the proffered cup and took a cautious sip. Dawn had been staying in her apartment because she had needed somewhere that was away from her team mates, and Mara kinda liked having her around. More or less. "They come back yet?"

"Twenty minutes ago, yes. And they brought a peace offering." Dawn turned to leave. "Come out when you're ready, Mara."

Mara nodded and Dawn left the room. She took another sip and stifled a sudden chuckle at the thought of Leia voluntarily getting up before dawn for something so silly.

"Leia, what was the idea, getting me up at oh-five-thirty?" Mara asked as she joined the group in her small kitchen.

"It was Amy's idea," Leia said, trying to defend herself.

Amy snorted. "Sure it was, Madame Chief of State. Since when?"

"So it wasn't your idea, then?"

"No... Mara, can I offer you a croissant?"

Mara looked the odd-looking pastry with the chocolate icing on the plate that Amy pushed her way. "What is this?"

"It's good, Mara. Also our way of apologizing for waking you up like that."

Mara took a bite. It was... very good. 

~*~*~*~*~

"You seriously want me to distract her? The Chief of State of the New Republic? Ranko, the woman probably hears better philabusters than I could ever think up in my life."

"Just long enough for us to get it done, Elsie. Nothing drastic."

"Good, because I don't do drastic anymore. Ariel still teases me about going for drastic."

Ranko sighed. "Elsie, just tweak something, okay? Something small that'll keep her distracted for a bit so she doesn't walk in on us in armor."

"Right, because seeing the armor would lead to a discussion on just how the Jade's Fire got damaged the way it did."

"Exactly."

Elsie smirked. "All right. Give me five minutes, and you'll have yourself a distracted Chief of State Organa Solo."

"Thank you."

"Any time."

~*~*~*~*~*~

Whuki pulled a metal block out of his sub pocket and began to mold and manipulate it into separate strands as Ralarna watched. "Forgot how much fun this was."

"Hmm?"

"Everyone all together, having a good time and enjoying themselves?"

"And, though we didn't get to see it, blowing stuff up?"

"That, too."

Ralarna smiled as he formed a strand and set it aside, away from the others. "Who is that one for?"

"You."

"Why'd you set it aside like that?"

He didn't answer as he finished the eight other strands, then turned to her. He picked up the stand that he'd set aside and looked her in the eye. "We haven't really talked since our argument. We said some hurtful things."

Ralarna looked at him, unblinking. "They needed to be said."

"True."

"And I did offend you with that comment about your mother being a defector. I apologize, Whuki. It was uncalled for, no matter the context." Then she bowed her head in respect. She noticed that the strand now in her hand wasn't glowing.

Whuki put his hand under her chin and raised her head so he could look her in the eyes. "And I apologize for what I said about your mother when we were arguing. It was also uncalled for, my love."

"Truce?"

"Already forgotten."

Ralarna looked down again and saw that the strand was now glowing black. "Neat."

"That's why I put it aside."

"Show off."

"Ah, you love me anyway."

~*~*~*~*~

Three hours later, Mara had finally managed to get everyone to leave her alone so she could have a few minutes of silence to herself for reflection. She hadn't thought she'd be nervous about the whole thing, but now she was... as the unconscious wringing of her hands attested to when she caught herself doing it.

Unfortunately, the moment was not to last as a blue flash lit up the room, causing Mara to spin around and fall into a defensive stance that probably would have looked better had she not been wearing sweats and a t-shirt.

Standing there was Peter... in armor sans helmet... and a surprised-looking Luke.

"Woah, Mara. We come in peace!" Peter said as he held up his gloved hands in surrender.

"Was this really necessary?" Luke asked as Mara dropped out of the defensive stance and multiple flashes appeared in the room, coalescing into the other members of the Wave Rangers.

"Yes," Peter told him simply.

Mara glanced around, wondering why they were all in armor. "What's going on?"

"There's something we wanted to do," Ranko explained with a shrug. "And now is the best time to do it."

"It requires you to be in armor?" Luke asked pointedly.

"Yes, Master Skywalker, it does. You'd wear formal wear to a State Event, wouldn't you? Same thing, really." Ranko smiled as Whuki handed out the metal strands, then looked at Mara, who was now holding hands with Luke. "Because you both proved yourselves on the battle field, we'd like to do a bonding ceremony for you."

"A what?"

"A bit like a wedding ceremony, but warrior to warrior... And you did mention yesterday that you were disappointed that Tionne had been unable to find anything yet on Jedi Tradition in regard to weddings, so this is our compromise... Everybody ready?"

"We are," Whuki informed her as he handed her a strand that glowed red at contact with her. "Go to it."

"Thank you, Whuki." Ranko draped the metal strand over Luke and Mara's joined hands. "For courage and bravery under fire." Red.

Melinda stepped forward and draped another strand over their hands. "In honor of your love, which you have both labored to keep and build." Pink.

Miranda: "To symbolize your happiness." Yellow was added.

Peter: "Loyalty." Blue.

Ralarna: "Unity and the mystery of tomorrow." Black.

Dawn: "For stability." Gray.

Allison: "For purity of spirit." Silver.

Savage: "Strength." Gold.

Susan: "For balance." Orange.

Amy: "For the fire in your hearts that even a blind man would see in darkest twilight." Copper.

As Amy stepped away, Peter stepped up again and smiled at them.

Mara frowned at him. "You look way too happy."

Peter shook his head. "No such thing... and I don't ever get to officiate for one of these."

"Ah."

"Do you, Mara Jade, take this man, Luke Skywalker, to be your husband, may the Force so help you?"

"Of course I do."

"And do you-"

"Yes," Luke said before Peter finished. Peter raised an eyebrow at him. "What?"

"Interrupting the officiant is bad, Master Jedi."

"Sorry. Continue."

"Thank you... And do you, Luke Skywalker, take this woman, Mara Jade, to be your wife, may the Force so help you?"

"I do," Luke reaffirmed without hesitation.

Peter put his hand over the metal strands laced over their joined hands, and the strands began to glow brighter. "Then by the authority of a... comrade in arms, I pronounce you bonded... Mara, you may kiss your groom."

As Mara and Luke shared a lingering kiss, the metal strands merged and formed a solid metal cord that was three colors: green, white, and purple. Then the cord glowed and disappeared as the Wave Rangers watched, to reform as braided metal bracelets on each wrist.

When Luke and Mara finally pulled away from their kiss, Mara looked down, saw the bracelets, then looked away again. Then she blinked and looked down again in surprise. "Um... what are those?"

"Bond bracelets," Peter answered. He pointed to the colors in turn. "The green and purple represent the two of you, and the white is symbolic of your bond..."

"It's a bit like a wedding ring," Allison put in. "But much, much harder to lose."

Before Luke could even thing of pulling Mara completely into his arms, Peter grabbed one arm and Whuki grabbed the other. "Hey!"

"You'll be seeing her later, Master Skywalker."

Luke's response was lost as they teleported out with him.

Mara shook her head in amusement and turned to look at Allison. "Couldn't you at least have waited until I was in the dress?"

"Oh heck no," Allison replied with a grin. "You are so going to bowl him over in that dress and the first time he sees you in it should be memorable."

"But wasn't this a wedding?"

Ranko shook her head. "This was a bonding and there's a difference. Kind of a wedding, but it doesn't matter where or when it's performed."

"Case in point," Savage said as she motioned to Ranko with her thumb. "Hers and Peters bonding ceremony was on the spot and they were wearing combat fatigues."

"It's not my fault that Aniya and Esherat ambushed us with it immediately post arriving home via portal, Savage."

"No, I just thought it was hilarious."

"Ha-ha."

Mara stared at Savage and Ranko for a long moment before shrugging. "Right..."

"We're going to go rescue Leia now," Ranko said as she teleported out in a red flash.

"Rescue Leia?" Mara wondered.

Susan stayed behind for a moment as the others teleported out in varying colored flashes. "Elsie got the job of distracting Leia so she wouldn't walk in on us."

"Oh."

"Hopefully she didn't go overboard," Susan said as she shrugged and teleported out in her own orange flash.

Mara was left to wonder how Elsie could have gone overboard with a distraction as she finally got her alone time, now somewhat less nervous than she'd been to begin with.

~*~*~*~*~*~

Susan caught up to Miranda. "How bad and do we gotta call Jill to talk to Leia?"

Miranda shook her head. "Elsie just rearranged a few things and Leia spent twenty minutes getting it righted again to her satisfaction."

"No ghosts?"

"Nope."

"Good."

Miranda glanced down and saw Susan's bracelet. Then she frowned. "Did you have that made, or is that…"

Susan blinked at her, surprised that Miranda had noticed. "I had it made. After… And what made you think of looking?"

Miranda didn't answer as she raised Susan's arm to get a better look, taking in the orange braided into the white and the black. Then she bowed her head in respect. "I'm sorry, Sue."

"For what?"

"Forgetting… And I shouldn't have. I was at the funeral." Miranda raised her head and looked Susan in the eyes. "Are you all right?"

Susan held eye contact for a few moments, then nodded and looked away. "I've been taking it a day at a time, Miranda. Some days are better than others, you know?"

"I think so… and the kids?"

At first, Susan didn't answer. Then she shook her head. "It's touch and go with them. Kath and the older ones, it's hard to tell. The younger ones… there are days. Sometimes it's all I can do to keep it together so they don't fall apart. Other times… I want to break down and… then I look at Vicky and know I can't."

"Well, how about now?"

Susan looked at her in question. "I'm sorry?"

"Just what I said." Miranda waited while Susan stared at her in stunned amazement. "I mean what I say, Sue."

"All right…"

Ranko glanced over to where Susan and Miranda were quietly talking and sighed in relief. Now, she was utterly glad that she'd managed to coax Susan into agreeing to this mission, even if it had really originally been for monitor duty. Speaking off… "Hey Vincent?"

[Yeah?]

"How's our time looking, real world wise?"

[Why?]

"Susan's kids, for one."

[Oh… It worked out to a day for you being an hour at home.]

Ranko considered that, then nodded. "That's good. Thanks."

[You're welcome… No, Wildcat. Everything's fine. Good to see ya, though…]

Ranko frowned. Wildcat? "You forgot to close the channel, Ice Man… Wait. Palora really got them off their vacation?"

[They came home a week early and were immediately pressed into service. Now, Wildcat is threatening to take a permanent leave of absence and checking in frequently to make sure nothing else went down the tubes… So don't find another crisis that you can't clean up yourself for a while, okay?]

Ranko laughed. "Deal."

~*~*~*~*~*~

"No."

"Why not? You sing wonderfully together!"

Elsie glanced at Chris, who shrugged. "Oh, lots of reasons, and so far this trip has been nice and I don't want to spoil it by having a power-incident in front of three hundred people."

"Elsie, you've never had a power incident in front of three hundred people while singing."

"Remember the junior high talent show?"

"Yes. You weren't in it."

"Because I had an incident and ended up following Running Moon around looking for some ghost's lost pet."

"And that has what to do with singing at a wedding reception?"

"I don't wanna, Mel."

"But it would be so great if you did."

"Mel, the last time I sang at anything resembling a wedding, Ranko sang Amazing Grace for her mother, Rala's parents were reunited, Loren and Greg eloped the next day, and I got possessed by Taloh's former room mate."

"Of your own will," Chris reminded her.

"You're not helping, sweetie."

"Sorry."

"Anyway, the point is: No. I'm not doing it."

"Please?"

"No."

"With a cherry on top?"

"No."

"I'll talk Leah into letting you back on full duty in two months rather than six?"

Elsie considered that, then shook her head. "As tempting as that is... No. And when was the last time you saw her? Five years? Ten?"

"Three months ago, actually... Please?"

"You're not going to give up are you?"

"Nope."

Elsie rolled her eyes. "You've been spending too much time with your mother-in-law, Mel."

"There's something to be said for insanity, you know. Sometimes you even learn a thing or two." Melinda presented her best puppy look. "Please?"

"No and there's nothing you can say to change my mind. Forget it."

Melinda smirked. Of course there was. Even Elsie's patience had to wear down eventually...

~*~*~*~*~

Mara was standing at the table in the dressing room of the building where the ceremony was going to be held, and couldn't help but stare down at the items that she'd selected a week before.

The blue-handled lightsaber, to represent both something blue and Jedi Customs. She hinged it onto a loop in a hidden fold in the skirt of the dress, where it hung out of sight but not out of mind.

One of the ration bars that he'd toted around half the galaxy looking for her. Mara smiled as she held it, knowing that it signified the beginning of one thing and the end of another. She'd have crossed half the galaxy herself to bring him back from Byss, but hadn't been allowed to do it. Instead, in an odd and traumatic turning of the tables, it was he that had to do just that.

Mara slid the ration bar into a carefully hidden pocket, fully aware of the significance. He'd fought and searched tirelessly to find her, and then she'd fought tooth and nail to return to both herself and the man who waited patiently by her side every step of the way. Something old, yes, but definitely welcome.

Next was an odd little device that made Mara pause and glance at her wrist and think about the people they'd gained on what was supposed to be a simple trading run. The device was a shield, yes, but so were the people it had come with.

Reaching up, Mara securely placed the small device against the back of her neck where her hair would hide it from view.

Standing there, Mara glanced at her wrist, again seeing the bracelet and understanding every bit how hard it had been to get to where she was now. But that was what made it worth it, because nothing worth doing was ever easy. And nothing had been easy about this relationship from day one...

"Mara?" Leia asked from the doorway, causing Mara to startle out of her thoughts.

"Yes?" Mara asked, turning to look at her with a smile.

"Ceremony can't start without you," Leia said gently. "You ready?"

"More than you'd think."

Leia took in the calm expression on Mara's face for a long moment, then nodded. "All right, then."

~*~*~*~*~

Luke was standing at the altar when he saw her and couldn't help but be stunned. "Holy Force."

Han, standing next to him, had to supress a chuckle at the whispered and reverent exclamation. The kid was right, though...

Those in the audience gasped as Mara proceeded up the aisle, and there was an awed hush as she and Luke joined hands.

"Do you, Luke Skywalker, take this woman, Mara Jade, to be your wife, in sickness and in health, for richer or poorer, for as long as you both may live?"

Han had to nudge him, and Luke blinked, remembering where he was. "I do."

"And do you, Mara Jade, take this man, Luke Skywalker, to be your husband, forsaking all others, to honor and..." The officiant stared at the book in his hand to make certain he was reading it right. "Rescue?"

Mara glanced at the officiant for a moment before smiling. How true that had been. They'd rescued each other more than once. "I do."

"Then by the authority vested in me by the New Republic, I pronounce you married." The officiant looked at Luke. "You may kiss your bride."

Luke just stood there, gazing at Mara.

The officiant had to hide his smile behind his book. "On second thought... Mara, you may do the honors."

Mara pulled Luke to her and kissed him. Hard. Luke blinked at the contact, and returned the kiss, finally returning from his daze.

When they broke the kiss and turned to the audience, the Officiant announced them: "I present to you the Skywalkers."

~*~*~*~*~*~

In the back of the room, Elsie leaned over to Melinda. "You promise no one here will elope tomorrow and Ranko will not sing Amazing Grace?"

"Why would Ranko want to sing Amazing Grace?"

"Mel..."

"Oh. Right. Yes, I promise."

"Then yes," Elsie said as she watched the bride and the groom proceed down the aisle. She couldn't not, for something so romantic.

Melinda almost crowed in satisfaction but settled for smiling from ear to ear.

~*~*~*~*~

Far away on Naboo, a woman and her sister-in-law watched a televised wedding take place.

As the bride on the holo turned to face the audience, the woman watching couldn't help but feel an odd sense of familiarity. It was as if she knew her, almost, but had never seen her before.

After a moment, she blinked and shook the feeling away. A hand on her shoulder and a glance to her left revealed her concerned sister-in-law. "It's nothing, Alena. Just a feeling."

"You're all right?" Alena asked in a concerned tone of voice that matched the expression in her eyes.

"Yes."

As the holocast faded and Alena nodded, the feeling went forgotten as if it had never been.

~*~*~*~*~

On Coruscant, the reception was a somewhat smaller affair than the wedding had been… and because the bride had been adamant, the only holocam that was allowed was a hand held one not meant for the media, but rather for family.

Mara's exact words had been: "No. You're showing my wedding to the galaxy, and that… is… enough. Period."

And so, though Leia hadn't really agreed her, there was only one holocam… meant for family and no one else.

As Elsie took the microphone off of it's stand and looked out over the crowd, her eyes went wide at what she saw. Not again…

"Elsie?" Chris asked gently from beside her, his voice tinged with muted concern. She took his hand in hers and that's when he knew why she was hesitating. Scattered among the crowd were spectral figures… some were familiar, and some were not. "Oh… I don't think they're here because you are."

Elsie smiled as she saw one spectral figure that stood out from the rest… a woman, not mingling as the others were, and calmly watching the bride and groom as they talked to various people. "Only have to worry about one."

"No possession," Chris reminded her, his tone brooking no argument.

She glanced at him with raised eyebrows. "You really think I'd let that happen again?"

"Didn't think you would, no…"

~*~*~*~*~

Mara smiled as she listened to Luke as he talked to Wedge avidly, just happy to listen. If she'd have him all to herself later, she could definitely share his attention now. Besides, she found out the most interesting war stories when he talked with friends…

"Ahem… is this thing on?"

Mara blinked at the sudden voice coming over the sound system, wondering what Elsie was doing with a microphone… And there she was, standing on the stage with Chris, looking out at the crowd and biting her lip.

"Hi… Could Luke and Mara step onto the dance floor, please?"

Mara turned to Luke, tilting her head in question. "Should we oblige her?"

Luke snorted in repressed laughter. "Yes… I think we should…" He looked at Wedge. "We'll catch up later, Wedge…"

Wedge nodded. "That, we will. Go on."

Luke and Mara joined hands and they stepped onto the dance floor, wondering what Elsie had up her… very short sleeve…

Elsie smiled at them from the stage. "Thank you… Luke, Mara, in honor of your union today, Chris and I would like to sing the song for your first dance as husband and wife. And so, without further ado…"

As Elsie began to sing in a clear, strong voice and Chris joined in, Luke turned to Mara and took her in his arms.

Mara looked into Luke's eyes as they danced, and lost herself in the words that seemed to fit them so perfectly.

While they danced, time seemed to last an eternity and everyone else in the room faded from the edges of their consciousness, as if they were the only ones in the room. Just them, a soothing voice, and dancing so close that it felt like the first time they'd ever danced.

When the song ended, they stayed there, holding each other and gazing into one another's eyes. Then Mara blinked, and the room slid back into focus. They'd been there all the time, but… She smiled, kissed Luke gently, and they left the dance floor with a nod to Chris and Elsie.

"Wow…" Luke mumbled as they sat down at the head table.

Mara nodded in agreement. Elsie and Chris had given them something special…

~*~*~*~*~

To one side of the dance floor, a translucent woman couldn't help but smile as she watched Mara lead Luke back to the head table after the dance they'd shared. They still looked cute together… a tug on her skirt, and the woman looked down at the child standing next to her. "What is it, Little Princess?"

The child pointed with a little finger. "I liked that."

The woman smiled and bent down to look her in the eyes. "I like it, too. Want to stay a little longer?"

The child nodded with a big grin. "It's fun here."

"Then we'll stay."

~*~*~*~*~

As they left the stage, Elsie noticed Dark Star sitting at the foot of the steps, calmly watching everyone. She bent down and petted the black feline on the head, and Dark Star leaned into her hand. "You saw 'em too, huh?"

Chris snorted. "Elsie, she's an animal. Of course she saw them."

"True…" Elsie glanced back at the stage and smiled when she saw the band setting up. "Want to dance, sweetie?"

"You just want to talk to a ghost and not make a scene," Chris said with a chuckle. "Don't you?"

"No, I really do want to dance with you… and not cause a scene. Not causing a scene is a bonus."

"Hmmm… Lead the way, then."

Dark Star was treated to Elsie leading Chris onto the dance floor with a smirk. The cat thought the two of them were just like her companion and her companion's mate. They were always doing stuff like that…

~*~*~*~*~*~

Out on the dance floor, Han smiled at Leia. "Do you remember?"

Leia smiled back at him. "Always and often." She looked over his shoulder, and suddenly couldn't help but frown. "I can't believe he brought her."

Han blinked down at Leia, confused at the change in subject. "Who?" As Leia motioned with her head and they turned, Han saw what she meant. One of the Rogue Squadron pilots was dancing with someone he recognized. Someone Leia had cause to dislike. "Oh… Been a long time, hasn't it?"

"Not nearly long enough."

"You're just saying that because she's a good pilot." As Leia silently glared up at him, Han winced. "Or not…"

~*~*~*~*~

Elsewhere on the dance floor, Chris was leading Elsie in a turn, and she could barely contain her mirth at the byplay between Han and Leia. "I would so like to know what that's about…"

Chris nodded as he pulled her close. "I would, but I think it's best left between them, don't you?"

"So true," Elsie agreed. As they passed by the woman who still wasn't mingling, Elsie took over leading and turned her attention to the ghost. "Hey."

The woman-ghost blinked, startled at being directly addressed. "Huh?"

Elsie smiled, understanding that reaction perfectly. Most ghosts were used to being ignored, and to be addressed suddenly could come as a shock. "Find me later, we'll talk. Sound good?"

Slowly, the woman nodded. "All right…"

Chris nudged Elsie's hand and she looked at him. "What?"

"Look down."

Elsie stared at him a moment, then followed his direction… and saw the little girl. "Oh… hi, there… Is she yours?"

The woman shook her head. "No. Not mine…"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: You know how Elsie was all "I don't want to do it because every time I do, something stupid happens?" Well...


	24. Chapter 24

Moira frowned as she read the data on the datapad, then looked at Ranko in question. "Why are you giving this to me? It's a bit out of my jurisdiction." She handed the datapad back to Ranko.

Ranko glanced down at the datapad tiredly. "Moira, aside from the fact that it is not anywhere near Corellia, it is in your jurisdiction."

"How, exactly?"

"It's a Jedi matter, and you are, or were, Jedi."

Moira looked at her with an expression of stupefication. "A big ship in the region of Belsavis is a Jedi matter?"

"No. The people who want to do something with it are a Jedi matter."

"Then why aren't you giving it to the Jedi themselves?"

"Moira, I am trying to prevent a potential disaster, not create a whole new one. If I wanted the Jedi to know, I'd have told Mara myself." Ranko glanced over to where Luke and Mara were sitting. "And I'd rather keep them both out of it."

Moira studied her intently for a long moment. Before, when Ranko had told her something about future events, she had been unable to do anything about it. And now, if she was understanding it correctly, this was something she could fix. An opportunity, as it were, to set something right. "Ranko..."

"What?"

"Was it really that bad?"

"Worse."

"Give me that datapad." As Moira took the datapad back, she made a choice. If she could do something about it, she would.

"So you'll do it?"

"Doesn't seem to be much choice, does there?" Moira read the information again, then frowned in thought. "What is this about a Force ghost?"

"That's why I'm not telling Luke about it." When Moira stopped and looked at her dubiously, Ranko shrugged. "Just be glad I'm giving you the bare boned version of it."

"Bad, huh?"

"Very."

Moira tapped the datapad's hard casing with her finger. "Well, at least there's a bright side to this."

"There is?"

"Um-hmm... I get to talk Fosco into going on a mission with me for a change."

At that, Ranko had to laugh.

~*~*~*~*~

Dawn couldn't help but stare at the cute guy. He just kept drawing her attention and she couldn't figure out why.

Melinda leaned over to her. "Do I need to tell your husband that you are oggling a trainee?"

Dawn turned and looked at her with an expression of confusion. "What?"

"That trainee. You were staring at him."

Dawn paused, then nodded slowly. "Something about is bothering me about him, but when I try to reason it, it's almost like I'm reaching with the wrong hand for the answers... And you kind of just did, Mel."

"No, I didn't."

"Comlink." Dawn glared at her until Melinda's eyes widened with realization. "Who is on monitor duty that, at one point in time, used to stare at anyone in a short skirt and go 'gaahhhh'?"

[I feel so loved,] Vincent suddenly said over the comlink, a teasing tone in his voice. [I haven't done that in thirty years or more, you know.]

Dawn rolled her eyes, and had to fight the urge to laugh. "To anyone but me... no, you really haven't. Love you for that, hon."

[What seems familiar about him?]

"If I knew that, I wouldn't have been staring at him." Dawn turned back and looked again. "Mel, does he remind you of that actor from that really bad He-Man movie? General appearance, I mean."

Melinda looked for a long moment, then had to nod in agreement. "He does... weird..."

Dawn stood up. "Well, I'm not going to cure my case of confusion just sitting here. Be right back."

Melinda watched as Dawn went over to talk to the man.

Dawn walked slowly up to the man as he talked to another trainee who had also been invited to the wedding, and studied him. He seemed... well, she could see that he had potential. What that potential was, however, wasn't yet clear.

"Hello," he said when she neared enough for him to notice her.

Dawn nodded in greeting. "Hello... I was wondering if we could talk for a moment?"

He blinked, not having expected her to phrase it liked that, then put out a hand, which she shook. "All right..."

"My name is Dawn... Yours?"

"Dolph."

Dawn suddenly realized that her He-Man assessment hadn't been that far off after all...

~*~*~*~*~

When Dawn returned from chatting with the guy, Melinda noticed that she seemed upset. "What's wrong?"

"I was right."

"Huh?"

Dawn motioned back to the man she'd talked to. "About him... Only the thing is, do I tell Master Skywalker about the loose cannon he's training, or do I let it be?"

"I still don't understand, Dawn."

"Picture that guy in a Skelator mask... I know it sounds ludicrous, but work with me here."

"A Skelator mask?" Melinda considered the serious expression on Dawn's face for a long moment, then glanced over to where the guy was standing. She imagined him in one of those masks and laughing maniacally... and had to supress a shudder at the implications. "Oh my..."

"You get it now?"

"I think so... creepy when he looks happy right now."

"Very," Dawn agreed.

Melinda watched as he started talking to other guests, and then looked hard at Dawn. "Tell him." A hand settled on Melinda's shoulder, and she startled and looked up to see Elsie staring at her with a restrained fury in her eyes. "What?"

"It is not our place to tell the man about his mistakes, may they be past, present, or future. All we can do is give hints and spar a little." Elsie glanced toward the man they'd been talking about and sighed. "And the event you're thinking about?"

"What about it?" Dawn wondered. Did Elsie know something she didn't?

"There's a possibility that it won't happen. Certain things are different here, even if I'm not certain what."

"That doesn't make any sense, Elsie," Melinda muttered.

"Wasn't supposed to... think about what we know about this universe's timeline, and then reconsider that man over there. Everyone has a potential, good or bad. At the moment, he's both."

Dawn and Melinda stared at her. It took a minute, but Dawn finally found her voice. "Are you trying to say that he won't go all grievy, turn to the dark side, develop a grudge against the Skywalker/Solo family, and blow things up with droids to gain power?"

"Depends on his and other's choices. The Jehar, specifically... But... Dawn, you know I don't get visions like that. I see possibilities, yes, but... Well, as Suna always says: What will be, will be."

"Since when does Suna quote Doris Day?"

Elsie turned and stared hard at Dawn. "Look, you're the one who wants to mess with a non-critical event that is just a possibility. If Suna were here, she'd make you read The Time Machine again, and you know it."

"How is this non-critical?"

"Think about it..." Elsie motioned to another trainee on the other side of the room. "That's Brakiss over there."

"Huh?" Dawn wondered as she looked around to find who Elsie had indicated, and stared as she saw a young man laughing at something someone had said. "What in the heck?"

Elsie shrugged. "If you want to worry about anything, then go ahead and worry about him."

Dawn blinked in realization, and turned back to regard Elsie with wide eyes. Then she noticed the translucent woman in the orange dress standing next to Elsie and looking on with what seemed to be puzzlement. "We're pre a lot of things, aren't we?"

"Yes," Elsie said simply. "Gantoris is still dead, however..." She glanced at the translucent woman, who snorted in disbelief at that last one.

"What are the three of you so glum about?" Ranko asked as she joined them, a curious expression in her eyes.

"The potential of certain trainees to go dark," Elsie told her. "These two were going to have an ill-timed talk with the Jedi Master."

Ranko paused and scanned the hall for anything familiar, and raised an eyebrow at what, or rather who, she found. "Ah... No need, Ladies."

"What do you mean?" Melinda asked.

"I had a talk with Master Skywalker about teaching methods of students..." Ranko shrugged. "I was concerned about the same thing, really... and he's different here. He's not under dark side influence like he was in the cannon, and... well, he keeps a tighter watch on his students, from what I can tell."

"He doesn't happen to send his students to Hoth if they piss off the education director repeatedly, does he?" Dawn asked wryly.

Ranko laughed at the reminder. "No... and I only sent people to Antarctica because of repeated stupidity, you know. Oh, and orders from the NSA."

"You sent my husband, he who tolerates cold temperatures like most people tolerate lukewarm water, to the coldest region on the planet and he thought it was fun. I don't see how that was discipline or to his disadvantage, Ranko." Dawn blinked and tilted her head to listen, then laughed. "All right... so the people you sent him with were overly whiny the entire time."

Ranko smiled serenely. "I never said there wasn't a way to torture someone with something small."

"Here, here," Elsie muttered in agreement.

"But getting back to Master Skywalker's students... Don't worry about 'em. He's got Mara to keep him on the straight and narrow. I did suggest therapy for Brakiss, though."

"What?" three voices asked simultaneously.

"Just didn't tell him why."

"When did you have that talk with him?" Elsie asked.

"When we were all sparring, after Mara got done showing me the right way to use a lightsaber. He wanted to learn some MA moves that he'd seen us use on the world ship and didn't recognize."

Elsie chuckled. Only Ranko... "So how'd he do?"

"Better than Lill did the first time I tried to help Ethan teach her to fight on two legs instead of four."

"Not that that's hard," Melinda interjected.

"Actually, he picked up the moves pretty fast, then showed me some of theirs, and then I got to show him how a sword was different, and then he beat me soundly in his specialty."

"You had fun, then..."

"Yep... I just wish I were able to shift right now, because I would have loved to have added that element to the match."

Dawn frowned as Ranko yawned suddenly. "You still can't?" That was really odd... she never yawned like that.

"Not without a lot of pain, no... Ariel thinks it has to do with the thundershock and being really low on power or something." Ranko turned and noticed Peter coming toward them, and smiled. "Shall we dance?"

"I was just coming to ask you that," Peter told her as he held out his hand. "Shall we?" Ranko took his hand and they joined other couples on the dance floor.

Dawn glanced at Elsie. "She seem exhausted to you?"

"Frankly, her bio-shadow has been making me wince for a week, but I didn't want to mention it," Elsie said while following them with her eyes. "You know how Ranko is when she pushes herself."

Dawn nodded. "I do. Should have thought to open myself up and look, though... So who are they?" She motioned to Elsie's translucent tag alongs.

Elsie smiled. "Don't ask, Dawn. Really. Go dance or something, all right?"

Dawn stared at Elsie, then at the woman-ghost, then at the small child-ghost who was staring up at her. "Right..." She turned on her heel and walked away.

"Why'd you stop them from telling the Sleeping Prince about his students?"

Elsie glanced at the ghost and sighed. "Because he sort of already knows." She paused and raised an eyebrow in question. "Sleeping prince?"

"Old habits die hard, and the first time I saw him in person, he was unconscious."

Melinda looked between Elsie and the thin air she was talking to. "Elsie?"

"It's your fault, Mel. You wanted the singing."

"And now there's a ghost?"

"Two, actually... "

"What does singing have to do with it? I thought it was good."

~*~*~*~*~

As Peter led her to a chair after the last dance before the band had to take a break, Ranko yawned again. "Oh, wow. All of a sudden, I don't feel so hot."

"Tired?"

"Yeah..." She let him guide her down into a chair. "Wow... I haven't been this tired in..."

"A long time?" Peter asked her as he pulled a chair up next to her and let her rest her head on his shoulder. She nodded, blinking her eyes blearily. "You pushed yourself. After the discharge."

"I know," Ranko mumbled as she tiredly watched the party go on around her. "Peter?"

"Yes?"

"When we get home, I could go for some golf."

Peter blinked down at her for a moment, not really having expected that. "All right... But don't you hate golf? Something about it being stereotypical of your profession?"

"Don't care. Want to play golf."

"Why?"

"After all this... want to be bored."

Peter nodded. That worked for him, too. A minute later, he glanced down at her and noticed that she'd fallen asleep. Good.

~*~*~*~*~

Elsie started to walk away from the table that Melinda was sitting at, but had to stop. She wanted to stay here and pretend that she'd never seen the woman or the little one from the stage. She knew Mara had been through a lot, and really didn't want to add one more thing to the pile. What good would it do?

"I can't do this," Elsie said finally, glancing down at the child. "I just can't ambush them with this and expect them both to take it well." She held up a hand to stop Melinda from saying anything, then looked over to where Luke and Mara were sitting at the head table, watching and chatting with people occasionally. "They've been through so much..."

The woman-ghost got in her eye line and looked at her sternly. "This is my call."

"No, it isn't. You're not the one who has to walk over there and reopen a wound that never closed to begin with, thereby causing more damage than there all ready was." Elsie began to shake her head, and had to blink when her eyes began to sting from unshed tears. "I can't do that."

"Look at me." Her tone made Elsie jump and look straight at her. "I am only going to say this once, all right? Sometimes, to help close and heal a wound, you have to make it just a little bit bigger and clean away the detritus. Sure, it hurts, and yes... this will be hard, but... Sometimes that is just how it is. Life is hard, Elsie. No more, and no less than that."

Elsie nodded slowly, liking this woman for the courage she was showing in voicing her thoughts. "And if it goes against my beliefs to inflict pain and suffering? I may not be a doctor, but I do hold to the Hippocratic oath to do no harm."

"This will not be harmful." She attempted to nudge her, and sighed when her hand went through Elsie's shoulder. "I really wish I could touch things."

"You promise?" Elsie suddenly asked after a long moment of silence.

She looked down at the little girl who was watching them quizically, then she looked at Elsie again. "Yes. I promise."

Elsie took a deep breath and looked over at Luke and Mara again. Watching them, she suddenly understood what She was trying to say. Sure, it was going to hurt a little, but... maybe, just maybe there was a silver lining to all the darkness. "Let's do this, then."

Melinda watched as Elsie walked off and suddenly respected her sister more than she had before. She made a mental note to go home more often. Visiting once every five years just wasn't enough.

~*~*~*~*~

Chris was sitting at a table, watching as Elsie intervened and talked to Dawn and Melinda. He'd been hesitant to let her do it alone, but she'd raised a good point about trying it on her own as an acid test. She was right, of course... Something landed deftly on his lap and he jumped a bit, startled by the sudden contact. Glancing down, he found Dark Star sitting there, looking up at him. "Hi there..." He petted her head, and she curled up on his lap. "What brought you over here, hmm?"

They were sitting there for a couple minutes, before Elsie's voice made him blink. "Chris, have you... oh. You have." She reached down and scratched behind Dark Star's ears, and the cat looked up at her. They held eye contact for a moment, and then Elsie nodded. "You're right. I know you are."

"Elsie?" Chris asked, curious about why she was talking to a cat like that. At least it wasn't flowers she was getting clues from again. That had been... somewhat unnerving... and they never sang for him like she said they did.

Elsie bent to kiss him, then she smiled. "I love you, sweetie."

Chris watched her walk away, then looked down at Dark Star. "You know, I honestly forgot what she was like when on a case. It really has been too long..."


	25. Chapter 25

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Angst warning right about... now. (And, also as a point of humor: I didn't realize at the time, because I failed to get concrit, how off this was. I didn't know that until the next time I actually was at a wedding.)

Mara wasn't at all surprised when Elsie made her way to their table and seemed really annoyed. Not that being annoyed was unusual for Elsie. She always seemed annoyed for some reason. "Is something wrong?"

"No, but..." Elsie glanced to her left. "You realize this is their wedding, right? You do? Good, then I am not to blame." Elsie turned back and smiled at Mara. "I'm blaming what I'm about to do on Mel. She's the one who wanted singing, and now there's weirdness."

Luke frowned. Had she really just talked to thin air? "How's that?"

"The last time I sang in public, there was a ghost." Elsie motioned to her right. "And now there's a ghost that knows you. Says her name is Ailee?"

Mara turned to Luke, who appeared as surprised as she felt. "Ailee?"

"Yes, and she keeps referring to Luke as a sleeping prince. Seems that him being in a state of unconsciousness for more than a week leaves a lasting impression." Elsie glanced to her right in puzzlement. "What about Duracrete?"

Luke suddenly had to chuckle. "Oh, that is definitely Ailee. I was trying to forget all about that, but thanks..."

Elsie looked at him wryly. "Well, I was trying to not have a ghost incident, so I think we're even." Elsie looked her right again and listened, then shook her head. "Dunno about that, Ailee... and no. I'm not doing the talky-through channel thing... Too much potential for causing a scene if it goes wrong... So you're stuck with relay."

Mara frowned. "Talky-through channel thing? What is that?"

"That's where Ailee takes me over, I let her, and she talks to you directly. I would, but I'm under orders not to as I'm fresh off a vacation due to stress. And we're at your wedding reception. I'm pretty certain you don't want to spend four hours calming me down if it goes wrong."

Mara nodded slowly, processing it all. "Oh... Like what happened on the World Ship?"

"That was minor, and I've walked through old battle field sites worse than that... And yes, Ailee, that's why I won't do it... That, and because Dawn still teases me about screaming in broad daylight. We don't need to add 'screamed in the middle of the Jade/Skywalker wedding reception' to the list of things she can rib on."

"Screamed in broad daylight?" Luke wondered. This got more intriguing all the while, didn't it?

Elsie sighed. "Yeah... My breakout, when we found out I was a seer, happened on a beach in broad daylight during a birthday party when I was five. Everyone was having fun and running around in the sand, and then I started seeing dead bodies everywhere I looked. Dead bodies that weren't actually there. Or were there, had been there, but were buried under sixteen feet of sand... What Dawn teases me about is screaming bloody murder and scaring the crap out of everyone there."

Mara looked at Elsie thoughtfully, somewhat more than perplexed. "And she teases you still?"

"In a way, it's funny... and hers was worse. Happened at the site of a former concentration camp, and we never, ever talk about it in front of her. I can put up with the jibes if it helps her to deal."

"Ah..." Mara looked at the space where Elsie kept glancing and didn't see anything. "How come I can't see her?"

"She's not a Force ghost, and had no Force potential. That's my guess, anyway."

Mara nodded for a moment, then something occurred to her. "Wait... if she's here and she's a ghost, that means she died, right? When did she die? I just saw her not that long ago... was it ten months? I think it was."

Elsie glanced to her right in question and listened... "Oh." Mara startled as she felt a sudden tinge of apprehension and turned to her husband right as Elsie looked at him with a deadly, icy calm in her eyes. "Maybe it would be better if your husband told it, seeing as Ailee doesn't actually remember much, other than seeing his 'big scared, beautiful blue eyes' and pain."

Luke winced at the directness, as well as the reference. Ailee had commented on his eyes, once... He looked at Mara. "You remember the rescue, right?"

Mara couldn't help but wonder where this was going. "Yes. There was a big ruckus that sounded bad..."

"She was there. After the ruckus, I found her in a side room after all the noise. She was half conscious and bleeding severely. I..." Luke shook his head at the memory, then continued. "I didn't even recognize her at first... she looked so different than she had the last time I'd seen her on Yavin IV. I wouldn't have, either, if she hadn't called me a sleeping prince. Then she mumbled something about a needle in a haystack and passed out." He sighed heavily, then glanced at Elsie. "I didn't have time to do a thing. Anything at all."

"You wouldn't have been able to do anything," Elsie told him after glancing to her right. "According to her, that is."

Mara stared at him, suddenly realizing that the stop he'd mentioned... Saccoria... made sense now. Ailee had been Saccorian. "Oh."

"And Ailee?" Luke suddenly asked, knowing it was somewhat silly to talk to thin air, but needing to say it anyway. "Thanks."

"'For what?'" Elsie asked, gesturing to thin air. "I'll do relay. That's what she said."

"For trying to make a bad situation better and making Mara laugh." He nudged Mara's arm. "You remember, right? Duracrete wall?"

Mara had to resist laughing all over again at the memory. "I think it was you being all offended that did it, but yes. I remember."

Elsie looked at Ailee again. "Who was the... oh. You know he aware then, right? Oh, good."

"She found that out later," Luke helpfully put in. "Who would have believed it while I was still laying there frozen?"

"Ailee wait... what?" Elsie glanced down at the floor, then at Mara, then at the floor again. "You sure that's a bright idea? ...Post-traumatic stress, for one thing."

Mara was really puzzled. What did post-traumatic stress have to do with anything? "This is confusing, hearing only half a conversation, but... what are you two talking about?"

"Ailee wants me to relay something that I'm not certain is such a good idea, but she is, and... Oh, hell... Really?" Elsie sat down, put her laptop on the table, and opened it. She glared to her right and shook her head. "We are at their wedding, you know... No, little one. It's a big person thing, and nothing you did. Honest."

Now Luke was the one blinking as he felt Mara startle internally at the mention of a little one. "Um... Elsie? What was that?"

"Tell you in a minute. It's complicated."

Luke turned to Mara, who looked away from him with unease. "What little one?"

"Luke?" Elsie interrupted, getting him to focus back on her and off of Mara for the moment. "Don't. If I have to say it again, I will break out the duct tape. Don't think I won't."

"But..." Luke frowned at her. "What is duct tape?"

"It hurts when pulled off, great for quick fixes, and makes an excellent gag in a pinch." Elsie did something with the computer, then looked directly to her right. "Now what is it you want to say? I'll input and they'll read. Sound good?"

Mara was having trouble understanding, but... Ailee had brought... "I want to see."

Elsie paused, then turned and regarded Mara with a smile. "When I'm done playing typist here, I'll set that up. I have this special memory pad interface for stuff like that, because my investigation leader got tired of being left out of seeing things I saw while on cases... And Ailee didn't bring her, Mara. She just kind of came a long, or so I understand."

Mara blinked in curiosity. "It's a girl?"

"Yep."

"Who?" Luke wondered again, unable to stop himself.

Elsie sighed. "Patience, dear sir. You find out all the best stuff that way, you know? ...Awfully talkative little thing, too." Elsie glanced down with a smile. "Hush. We're taking turns, and then it will be yours and we'll ask 'em, all right? ...Good." She turned to her right again. "All right. You may fire when ready."

They waited while Elsie transcribed, only pausing to ask a question about something they'd never heard of that sounded like a medication. Then she hit a button and turned her computer around so they could see.

Mara had to stifle a gasp as she read what was there... That really was Ailee, no doubt in her mind about it. _"...even if I had been drugged into thinking my name was 'Sugar.' Don't ask. Has to do with a stupid, chauvinistic imbecile... I'm glad he's dead."_ Was it wrong to be in total agreement with her?

Luke was left even more confused and wondering why there would have been a need for a healing agent. _"Um... I had a makeshift healing agent on hand because they let me keep my medical supplies. That... still doesn't make sense to me. It really, really doesn't. There was heavy bleeding from what they put her through, and she could have died without it..."_ That explained some, but not all...

Mara frowned at one part... _"Mara, there was a box in that place that should be among the evidence. You'll want it, to be able to perform a proper burial. It was tucked into a corner of the room where I was held." Proper burial? And what did she mean by a side effect? "Oh and there's something you'll want to know... the healing agent has a side effect. I'm not certain you'll even want to get pregnant right away, but... Well, put simply you won't be able to. For, at my guess, six months to a year from the time I used it. Sorry, but it was all I had on hand... I just felt you needed to know that, in case the doc who did your work up missed it, and I don't think he did, if he was looking for other things."_ Huh... That explained some things...

Luke turned to Mara. "You said it was bad, but..."

Mara regarded him somewhat less than calmly, though she really wanted to look away. "I did."

Elsie got Luke's attention. "You kinda don't want to go there... Ailee? I told you this was a bad idea."

Mara looked at Elsie, face calm but eyes full of turmoil. "It has just been a while and it's a lot to take. I'm... sort of fine about it now."

Elsie raised an eyebrow. She quite ovbiously wasn't fine, but if she wanted to say so... "Good, because the little one wanted to have her say and find out what her name is. Ailee's been calling her Little Princess because she wouldn't accept any name if it wasn't from you."

Luke stared at Elsie, suddenly understanding why she'd threatened to gag him. "Oh."

Mara thought about it. A name? She was supposed to pick a name? What was it Ailee had said about a haystack... "Little needle in a haystack... How about Neesta? I like that one."

Elsie glanced down, smiling. "What do you think, hmm? Neesta work for you?" She blinked and had to stand up to watch as an invisible little person ran around. "Guess it does. She's jumping for joy... Oh, and dancing."

Luke was staring at Elsie in shock. Of all the things to happen today, he really really hadn't been expecting that. "We had a..."

With gentle hands, Mara got him to look directly at her. "No. Were going to, Farmboy. I..."

Elsie sat back down and sighed. "This is why I didn't want to do this... Ailee, who by the way wants to smack you both a good one, just so you know, says it wasn't your fault, Mara... That, and something about being drugged to the point of not rememdering her own name, and... it was that bad? I saw flashes, but... Oh." Elsie listened for a moment, then her eyebrows went up. "How long were you there? ...What do you mean you don't know?" Elsie's eyes bent wide, and then she stood up again to look for something. Spotting the person she wanted, she marched off to get them.

Luke and Mara watched her go, then Luke returned his attention to Mara... who wasn't looking at him. "Mara..."

"What?"

Luke laid a hand on her arm. "Remember what I said before we left for the run? I don't blame you. Not for one thing, not at all... And Ailee is right."

Mara finally looked at him. "About what?"

"There was a box in the room where I found her, tucked in a corner and covered in a smock."

Remembering what Ailee had said about it, Mara tilted her head in curiosity. The part about a proper burial had struck a cord. "Where is it now?"

"My apartment. It was something I couldn't just hand over to law enforcement, not without knowing what it was. Plus, the Force directed me to it, or I wouldn't have even noticed it."

Mara nodded, intending to say something, but was interrupted by Elsie returning with an unfamiliar man in tow. Instead, she blinked.

"This is Moira's son, Darvis. He's with the Coruscant Planetary Police Force. I figure, if anyone were to be able to find out when a New Republic medic went missing, it's him. Or Moira, but I couldn't pull Moira away from girl talk if I tried," Elsie explained.

"I don't usually do this for ghosts," Darvis told her.

"Why not? It can be fun at times..." Elsie suddenly frowned. "They have a what in their apartment? Ailee!"

Mara frowned at that sudden change in composure. "What now?"

"She says the smock was hers and she hated it... and the box was a quick fix. That is what she did with Neesta." Elsie made a face. "I didn't need to know that, Ailee."

Luke's jaw fell open in shock... so that's why he'd been led to it. "No way."

"At the risk of my sounding like I'm from another dimension... Way. Very way. Apparently, that's what she was carrying her medical supplies in when... Well, you can guess... What do you mean they're lucky that there was a stacis field for the live bacta patches? ...Oh. You're right. Very lucky there was one of those."

"Do you always talk to ghosts like this," Darvis wondered.

Elsie rolled her eyes. "Please, Darvis. The woman who trained me to use my ability so I wouldn't have a psychotic break was a ghost herself." Elsie sat back down at her laptop and punched in some information, then showed him. "Ailee provided me with her identification number, and I found this."

Darvis viewed it, raising an eyebrow at her. "Am I supposed to be able to read that?" Elsie blanched and sent it through the translation program, and then Darvis nodded. He pulled out a datapad and spent a minute consulting it. "New Republic Medical reported her missing... and then nothing until her body was recovered three months ago." He glanced at a very uncomfortable-appearing Luke. "By you."

"Um... okay, Ailee. I'll repeat it. 'It felt like years. How long is a while in police talk?'"

Darvis chuckled. "Awfully impatient, isn't she?"

Mara nodded, smiling. "You have no idea. None at all."

At that, Elsie's eyes went wide, and suddenly she was giggling. "Ailee, I don't think trying to hit them both on the head is the best course of action! ...Sure, it makes you feel better, but they can't see you, so it's not fair. Darvis?"

"Eight months."

Mara couldn't help but look at him in astonishment. "That long? But we saw her around then!"

Elsie nodded after a long moment. "She says it happened not long after that... and, like she said before, she never made it to her duty assignment, so they probably thought she went AWOL... And Mara?"

"Yes?"

"The smock that was hers? She wants you to burn it."

"Why?" At Elsie's stern expression, Mara nodded slowly. "Oh. I'll do it."

"Good."

"Where's..."

"Off on the dance floor, having a celebratory dance with Biggs." Darvis looked at Elsie in question and she nodded. He smiled, nodded to Luke and Mara, and left the table.

Luke startled as Elsie pulled something out and began setting it up next to her laptop. "Biggs is here?"

"Did you think he'd miss your wedding?"

"And he's dancing with my daughter?"

Elsie chuckled as the way it sounded. "In his defense, she appears to be three years old and is very short... So, so cute, though." Elsie finished setting up and held her hand over the pad in concentration. When she was done, Elsie turned the screen around so they could see it. "I should warn you, here. Ailee is, for some reason, wearing an orange dress. It's a little jarring at first." First, she showed them her first memory of Ailee from the stage, then of Neesta standing beside her, wearing what appeared to be a ship suit.

Mara couldn't help but stare. "Oh... wow." The little girl did indeed appear to be about three years old, and had dark green eyes and reddish-blonde hair.

Elsie sat back and glanced to her right again in question. "I didn't think of this before, but... did someone teach her to speak? Because she sounds a lot older than she appears, and I know she's not that old. Wouldn't have been that old, which ever it is... You did? Oh. Good job, then."

"I want a holo of that," Mara breathed, taken with the image of the child.

Then Elsie showed them Biggs and Neesta dancing, and Luke couldn't find his voice at the sight of the friend who had died during the attack on the first Death Star.

Mara reached over and took his hand in hers as Elsie set the recording to repeat. "She looks so happy..."

"She is, right Ailee?" Elsie waited for an answer, then nodded. "Ailee says, and I quote, 'She's the happiest kid I've ever met. Much like the two of you, and reminds me of you, Mara, when she laughs, and you, Luke, when she's quiet.'" Elsie frowned. "Shouldn't that be the other way around? ...Oh, right. Bad first introduction involving a coma. Got it... Oh, and 'the both of you when she smiles, which is often.'" Elsie listened for a moment, then suddenly had to snort in laughter. "Oh, and she also says that she still finds the Halcyon guy adorable... Cuter now that she sees him with the woman who must be his wife... Her name is Mirax, Ailee. And it's Horn, not Halcyon... He was under cover at the time. Yes, yes, he really was... because he was gonna go off and find her, actually."

"How do you know that?" Luke wondered suddenly.

"Pop culture thing," Elsie reminded him, and he blinked. "You remember? We embarrassed the heck out of ourselves with our incredible lack of tact about your time line? There's probably a lot that I shouldn't know that I know because of that... Oh, and word of warning, since the invisible medic here brought it up... Don't give Brakiss the dark cave test."

Luke studied Elsie for a long moment, taking in the seriousness of her expression. "Not that I was going to, but... why?"

"I can't tell you everything, Master Skywalker. Just warn. And if you do, confine him. Don't let him run off. It... would be so bad you have no idea." Elsie turned to look out over the crowd, eyes calculating and missing nothing, then she turned back around and looked at him again. "But I'm not going to have to worry about that, am I? Ranko said you changed your methods."

Luke looked at Mara in question and saw the interested expression. "No, I don't think you'll have to worry about that. Learned my lesson the first time."

"Second," Mara told him with a slight smile. "And if you ever end up in a coma again, I'm letting Dark Star alone keep you company at night and teaching her how to use the commlink alarm."

Luke suddenly realized that he hadn't seen Dark Star since before Elsie had called them out on the dance floor. "Speaking of the black furred one, where is she?"

Elsie motioned to another table. "Over there with Chris, watching us. Chris because I'm fresh off the vac order and doing something power related, Dark Star because... she still really won't let Mara out of her sight... What? You mean that's normal behavior for that cat? Wow, and I thought my dog was weird when he wanted to sleep in the empty fish tank as a puppy...."

Mara leaned closer to Elsie. "What did she say?"

"That Dark Star wouldn't leave Luke, either. She really followed him all around the temple on Yavin after he woke up?"

"Oh... Actually, she followed him around before he woke up, too, but I didn't really tell Ailee that." Mara blinked when Elsie turned and looked to her right in astonishment. "What now?"

"It's a good thing she's dead, or she'd probably hurt herself laughing on the floor like that..." Elsie looked back at Mara thoughtfully. "Though, I don't know... Do you think a ghost can get the hiccups? ...Oh. I set her off again. Sorry about that..."

Mara chuckled. "She probably needed it."

"And what's her deal with coffee, anyway? She can't get any sustenance from it, but she keeps imagining up a cup. It's weird."

Luke frowned. "Really?"

"Yeah. She went through three cups while Chris and I were singing, and just now, she was on her tenth."

"Coffee is your slang for Caf, right?" Mara asked.

"Yes, it is. Sorry."

Mara leaned closer to Elsie. "The entire time she was on Yavin, she was drinking caf left and right, and explained at least once that she was on an eight-cup restriction."

Elsie looked down at the floor. "Ah. That makes sense, actually... Figures you'd know a medic that would be a poster child for Coffee Drinkers Anonymous or fit to appear in a Starbucks Ad..."

"Starbucks?" Han's voice suddenly asked from behind Elsie. Elsie turned to see Han and Leia pulling out chairs to sit down. "What's that?"

"Caf chain at home," Elsie told him. Then she reached for her laptop and smiled at Mara. "I'll get you that holo, Mara."

Mara nodded and watched as Elsie left the table with her computer.

"What was that all about?" Leia wondered. "She didn't have to leave."

"She just needed to tell us something," Luke told his sister with a smile. Then he looked at Mara. "So... Do you think we should pay our respects, or just leave now?"

Mara smiled. "We could leave now. Leia? You mind if we leave?"

"Not at all."

Mara frowned at Leia's tone and glanced at Han. There was something going on there... "Unless you'd like us to stay..."

"It's fine, Mara," Han told her, shaking his head.

"Well, all right..." Mara turned to Luke and took his hand. "Lead the way."

Leia watched them go, and had to shake her head. "Maybe we should have made them stay a while longer..."

"We didn't stay for our own reception, Leia. Why should they?"

Leia smiled and turned to look at him. She'd been angry all evening long, but this was Han. She knew he'd dated before they'd really gotten together, but that was long ago. It no longer mattered... much.

~*~*~*~*~

Peter had been expecting her to collapse all along, and he'd been right. She'd pushed herself to a point beyond exhaustion and was now leaning against him, with his arms around her, and snoring lightly.

Dawn passed by their table, and stopped when she saw them. Then she frowned. "How long has she been like that?"

"Ten minutes or so... about time, too."

Dawn came closer and put a hand on Ranko's arm. Then she winced. "Oh. I get it. Her reserves finally gave out."

Peter nodded his assent. "Not that she had any... you know, after. She did say that she felt charbroiled for a good long while."

"Still does."

Peter frowned at the pain lining Dawn's eyes. "Dawn?"

Dawn slowly pulled her hand away. "I'm fine... Met a precocious five-year-old on the dance floor. Nice kid."

"What five-year-old?" Peter curiously asked as he glanced around.

"One you can't see. Or maybe she just looks five... I don't know... So how are we..."

"Do I have to think of everything today?" Elsie asked as she passed by the table carrying two cups. "Dawn, go invisible or something. Peter, you've got a shadow cloak. Use it. Jeeze, you two trained in covert ops. It is not that hard to get our sleeping commander out of here... Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to give a man some caf and confuse his wife..."

Peter frowned as he watched Elsie walk away, then looked at Dawn. "She does have a point... Where's Miranda?"

Dawn blinked, then laughed. "Why? So she can cause a heat wave in here as a distraction? We don't need Miranda for this. It's just an invisible, sneak, teleport."

"Invisible, sneak, what?" Iris' voice asked as she joined them, Moira at her side. "What are you planning? An offensive?" Then she noticed the snoring woman practically in Peter's lap. "Why is she...?"

"You wouldn't believe us if we told you," Dawn told her.

"This has to do with her being language-scrambled, doesn't it?" Moira suddenly asked.

"Yes."

"You need help with her?"

"No."

"All right, then," Moira took a firm hold on Iris' arm. "It's not important. Let's go find my son, Iris."

"But..."

"Find Darvis now, medical later... You are taking her back to the apartment, right, Peter?"

Peter nodded. "Yes." Moira smiled, then practically dragged Iris away.

Dawn looked at Peter, almost laughing at Moira's antics. "We have just got to visit these people more often..."

~*~*~*~*~

Corran and Mirax were talking when someone tapped him on the shoulder. Frowning, he turned to find a woman standing there with two cups in her hands... Were those caf? "Can I help you?"

The woman smiled and set the cups on the table. "I can't really explain this, because I don't understand entirely, but... These are from Ailee... She wanted you to know that everything is fine now, Mr. Horn." She glanced at Mirax, nodded once, and left them as quickly as she'd come.

Corran watched as the woman in the gray dress walked away, then looked at the cups of caf. After a moment, he smiled and handed one to Mirax.

Mirax accepted the cup from him, then tilted her head in question. "What was that about?"

"I'm not certain."

Mirax nodded slowly, then took a sip. "All right..."

~*~*~*~*~

They hadn't actually left the building when they'd snuck out. Instead, they'd gone to the roof to look out over Imperial City.

Mara smiled as she leaned back into Luke, savoring the moment. "Mmmm..."

"Feels like a lifetime ago, doesn't it?" Luke asked, remembering the last time they'd been up on a similar roof, her telling him to not get himself in over his head. He'd gotten into plenty of trouble since then, but it was the thought that counted.

"A lifetime and a moment ago," Mara agreed as she tiled her head to look at him. "Wasn't that long, really. A year, maybe two. But it does feel like a lifetime."

Luke smiled and they returned to city-gazing. Then he frowned, thinking back on the evening... "Mara?"

"Yes?"

"Why didn't you tell me?"

Mara turned her head so she could look at him again, and saw genuine curiosity, not judgement. "I was going to tell you... at the dinner we never got to have."

Luke blinked, thinking back to that long-ago, nearly forgotten conversation. There had been a force impression... "You..."

"Found out after we talked," Mara told him, her voice unsteady. "And then... after... it hurt too much to think about."

"But you thought about it a lot."

"Yes... Often... You're not mad, are you?"

"Why would I be?"

Mara smiled and kissed him on the lips. "I love you."

"More than there are stars in the sky?"

Mara blinked at him, then smiled again. "Yes."

"And waves crashing on the sand?"

"Oh, yes. Way more than that."

Luke smiled down at her and then kissed her on the nose. "Glad to hear it."

Then, together, they watched the evening traffic for a long while. They were together, and now was for them alone. There would be time enough for the rest of it later...


	26. Chapter 26

They were packing her apartment into boxes, and Mara couldn't help but glance at him occasionally and wonder what was going through his mind that he was being so quiet. They'd had a wonderful evening after they'd gotten back to his apartment, and for the first time since returning from that place, she'd been comfortable enough to do more than let him hold her. It had been special, being together like that, as if it had been the first time... Blinking that thought away and smiling, she put a plate carefully into a box.

"How do you want these packed?" Luke asked, setting some glasses on the counter.

She reached over and was startled when, on merely touching his hand, she saw something. Something that made no sense... "Luke?"

"What?"

"I saw..." Rather than ask, she took hold of his hand and looked into his eyes. In her minds eye, she saw him standing in a room, lightsaber ignited and breathing hard. He was looking around, almost as if he was expecting to be attacked. When no attack came, he thumbed the lightsaber off. He took one step, and then stopped again when he heard a groan.

Looking around for the source of the groan, he glimpsed a captive collapsing on to her back through an open doorway. She was wounded... badly. He went to her and bent down. ["Hey, don't try to move."]

The captive looked up, their eyes met, and she smiled. ["Sleeping prince."]

Watching the memory unfold, Mara was as shocked as Luke had been to see Ailee like that. Knowing that she'd been there, that she'd died there, just wasn't the same as seeing it happen.

["Ailee?"]

["There's... needle in haystack."]

Mara was frowning internally... Why would she have used her last breath to say something like that? Had she known and just not been able to express herself? ["If I hadn't been drugged into thinking my name was Sugar..."] If she hadn't been herself, then it made sense to be talking in riddles...

She watched as Luke stood up, also noticing that bundle in the corner, and then she felt that welcome tingle as he had. Odd... she didn't remember that Force probe, just the noise and then the pause... and then, as she was seeing now, the rescue.

As the memory faded, Mara pulled Luke into a kiss. When they parted, he stared at her. "Mara?"

"I saw it."

"Saw... what?" As he looked at her, he frowned. "You saw me rescue you?"

"That, too." He opened his mouth to say something, and she shook her head. "No. It's my turn."

"For what?"

"To remind you." She gently led him away from the counter and made him sit down on the nearest chair. "Sit, husband of mine."

"Mara, you just saw..."

"Truth, and nothing but the truth," she told him. "Ailee did not die alone, and you found me. No more, no less. There was no failure there, so don't try to tell yourself that there was."

Luke looked into her eyes and began to nod slowly. "You're right."

"If you start to feel guilty again, I want you to remember this..." And with that, she kissed him. There have been many kisses since the invention of the kiss by Saul and Delailah Korn when they made an inadvertent discovery that kissing was so much better than hooking thumbs... this one left them all behind.

~*~*~*~

Elsie sighed as Peter talked Iris out of calling for a medivac for Ranko, who was now sleeping soundly on the couch.

"No, Iris. She'll sleep for a couple days, but she'll be fine."

"But she should be looked at by a doctor or something," Iris argued, not yet convinced.

"She is a doctor and this has happened before," Peter told her seriously. "And I don't want to move her again until she can move under her own power."

Iris glanced at Ranko, sleeping on the couch, and shook her head. "All right, but..."

"We'll be keeping a tight watch on her," Elsie said, speaking up for the first time since the two of them had started to argue. "But she will be fine." She glanced at Peter as Iris left the room to start breakfast. "Go on. I'll sit with her for a while."

"You sure?"

"Yes."

Peter looked at Ranko one more time before nodding and leaving the room with a sigh. Elsie turned back from watching him go, and rolled her eyes when she saw that Ailee was looking down at Ranko with a clinical eye. "Ailee?"

"She does look pretty bad," Ailee told her. "I didn't know it was possible to appear that exhausted while asleep, but wow... I can see why Iris would want to get her checked out."

Elsie sat down next to the couch and pulled out her laptop. "She can normally go more than 85 hours without sleeping, Ailee."

"What?"

"Personally, I think that's how she gets so much done... Biological cheater."

Ailee frowned at Elsie. "You didn't ask me, you know."

"About what?"

Ailee sat down carefully on the floor next to her. "About before. You didn't ask."

"Was there a need for me to ask about any of that, Ailee?"

"Well... no."

"Then no, I didn't ask."

"But..."

Elsie set her laptop aside and looked at Ailee, to find her sitting there, looking down at her transparent hands in dejection. "Is there something I'm missing here? Some little thing that makes you... You feel guilty? Oh, Ailee..." She concentrated and held out her hand to Ailee. "Show me."

Ailee blinked at the contact has she hesitantly took hold of Elsie's hand, having been used to going through everything solid. "Huh?"

"Don't tell, Ailee. Show. Right now."

"You mean that?"

"Yes. If there's a reason you should feel like scum, then show me." At once, Elsie was swept into a memory where a woman was laying on the floor in a darkened room and shivering.

A second woman, who no longer remembered her name, watched, unblinking at first, and then she slowly got up and moved to look at this person they'd dragged in here, laughing as they deposited her on the floor like so much refuse.

Slowly, without a word, she got the other woman to sit up, vaguely realizing how pale she was, and that her skin was clammy. Then something made her pause... the red telltale signs of something that just didn't belong.

When the other woman raised her head, their eyes met. In that moment, conscious thought wanted to scream, yell out for all to hear... anything but stay there, staring silently at the other woman. In that moment, nothing had changed, but it felt like everything had... for Ailee Hallan suddenly knew, without a doubt, where and who she was.

And then the other woman passed out, collapsing into her arms as Ailee blinked in the dim light. "Mara?"

Wasting no time, she lowered the woman to the floor, careful not to harm her more, and then went to go get what obviously looked like her medkit stashed in the corner. They'd left that in here? Why? Shrugging that thought off and knowing she didn't have much time, she rooted through the kit and found what she was looking for. Whatever they'd done had caused this and she was going to fix it, side effects or no side effects. If it didn't work, it wouldn't matter... Even if it did work, it probably still wouldn't matter.

Looking down, she noticed something else that didn't belong... Was that? Oh... It was... "Oh Mara..."

Elsie couldn't help but shake her head as the memory faded, understanding just why it was that Ailee felt guilty. "Doesn't work that way."

"What do you mean?"

"You are not at fault. You saved her, and she, though she probably doesn't even remember it, she saved you... You were there a long time, Ailee. Conditioning happens in a situation like that."

"But I could have done more..."

"How? Did you have an IV or any other equipment at your disposal?"

"No."

"Then you are not at fault. You do what you can and the rest is silence." Elsie released her hand, and sighed again. "And... wow. Headache..." She massaged her temples, trying to alleviate the sudden pain behind her eyes.

"I didn't hurt you, did I?"

Elsie shook her head slightly. "No, it's just been a while is all. Some things are not meant to be jumped back into like one never left them."

"Sorry."

Elsie chuckled at that. "Ailee, it was my choice, all right? I know what I can and can not do, and I knew I'd probably get a headache. My choice, and not your fault, so put the guilt complex away right now." She glanced at Ailee to find her smiling. "Good."

~*~*~*~

Corran sat at the terminal, staring at the data, and couldn't help but be confused. How could everything be fine if she was dead? That made no sense.

"Mirax said I'd probably find you here," Mara said as she pulled up a chair and sat down. "She seemed concerned." She frowned as she read what he'd been looking at. "Why are you..."

"A woman at the reception mentioned her, saying everything was fine... But how can everything be fine?"

Mara sighed and laid a hand on Corran's arm. When he looked at her, she shook her head. "Everything is fine. Ailee said so herself."

Corran looked at her shrewdly. "What?"

Mara motioned to the monitor. "It would be more accurate to say 'everything is fine, now' not 'everything is fine.'"

"What do you mean?"

"She might be dead, but... everything is now fine. Niether one of us is in that place now."

Corran looked at her with wide eyes, glanced at the data again, then looked at Mara. "You mean to tell me that..."

"She was there, yes. I didn't find out until two days ago when that woman in the gray dress stopped by our table and spilled the beans... Luke rescued me, and Ailee, well... You get what I'm trying to say, right?"

Corran frowned, trying to understand it all. "So..."

"She was at the reception. Of that, I have no doubt. Only Ailee would know what Elsie relayed to us. That was who gave you that message, by the way."

"And the caf?"

Mara blinked in surprise. "Caf?"

"Yes."

Mara smiled. "There you go. I guess she wanted you to have some if she couldn't."

"You're not joking about that, are you?"

"No, I'm not... So when you look at that information, remember her as she was the last time you saw her, all right? She probably wanted that."

Corran nodded, then really looked at Mara. "Why were you looking for me?"

"Luke wanted you to be in charge with Solusar while we..." She let the sentence hang there suggestively.

"Ah, yes. We could do that. Have a good time, Mara."

Mara didn't reply at first, then she nodded slowly. "We just might."

Corran watched her go for a moment, and then turned back to read the information again. Remember her as she'd been? He could do that...

~*~*~*~

Kam walked into the cafeteria and saw Corran mounting something on the wall next to the caf-maker. Frowning, he went to get a better look. "What is this?"

Corran finished and stepped back to look at it with a smile. "That should do it."

"Should do what?"" Kam frowned as he read the plaque, and then couldn't help but snort in laughter. "That fits her. I like that."

"Mara said we should remember her as she was," Corran told him. Kam nodded in agreement.

The plaque read:

This Caf-Maker is Dedicated  
To a Departed Friend of the Praxeum  
Ailee Hallan  
She once said that Caf was  
"The Sweet Nectar of Life."  
Drink Up. She'd Want You To.

~*~*~*~

"So you're going back to Hoth?" Moira asked as they stood in the shadow of the Wave Runner.

Ranko nodded. She felt more rested after her very long nap, and just couldn't believe they'd let her sleep for four days straight. "We have to put the ship back where we found it, or Aniya will get upset... not that she'd notice right away or anything."

"And after that?"

Ranko smiled as she watched Whuki and Ralarna tease each other. "After that? We're going home the long way... Melinda may want to torture Dimitry all over again, but it's been a while since we had a team building excersize."

Moira frowned. "Torture Dimitry?"

"The guy who programmed our dimensional portal. We've tried for thirty years to reprogram it and not once have any of us managed to hack the programming."

"Oh. Then why use it?"

Ranko laughed. "Because if the purpose of it was to prepare someone to expect the unexpected? Then, oh yes, it is very good training."

Moira snorted at that answer. It sounded ludicrous, but she did have a good point...

~*~*~*~*~

"Luke?" Mara asked as she packed clothes into a suitcase.

"Yes?"

She motioned to the box with the New Republic Medical emblem and the smock laid out beside it. "I... that we should..."

"Have you ever been to Endor?"

She frowned at him, then shook her head. "Not really, no..." Had never been to the surface, but did seeing it from orbit count as having been there?

"Then that is where we're going. About time, isn't it?"

Mara nodded. "It is... Good choice, too."

Luke looked at her for a long moment, then nodded back. "It's not that I don't care, Mara."

Mara just looked at him, not having expected him to say that. "What?"

"I care. Believe me, I care... But I wasn't there, and the only reference I have is a feeling. Yours. You were my focus, and nothing else... I spent a long time alone, in my x-wing, and then, later, on your ship, and all I had to do was trust, and I'd have found you sooner."

Slowly, Mara put down the article of clothing and went to him. "Hey." She'd been expecting that, ever since the walls had started to fall. He looked at her and she wanted to wince at the pain reflected in his eyes. "You found me. That is all that matters."

"Is it?"

The question hung there between them until Mara closed the distance and kissed him, reminding him again with their closeness. When she pulled away, she looked him in the eyes. "Yes. It is."

"But..."

"Luke... All that matters is that you found me, and Ailee did not die alone. Got that? Yes, you could have found me sooner, and yes, we could have ended up going to dinner instead of what actually happened, but... we didn't. Niether one of us can change that. I wish we could, but we can't. Life just isn't that way and we can't rewind time, no matter how much we want to."

Luke stared at her, amazed that she was now being strong for him. Then he kissed her back. "Thank you for that."

"It was about time I held you up instead, right?" She kissed him again, and then returned to her part of the packing. "And yes... Endor is good."

Luke smiled, knowing she meant it.

~*~*~*~*~

Ailee stood to one side with Neesta while Luke and Mara buried the medical kit in silence, solemn as they did so.

Neesta glanced up at Ailee. "The forest is nice."

Ailee nodded. "It is."

"Have you ever been here before?"

"No. Heard about it plenty, though." Ailee frowned as Mara glanced in their direction, almost as if she'd heard them. "Odd..."

"What is?"

Ailee shrugged is off. "Not important."

"It is so," Neesta said insistently. "You always say everything is important, no matter how small."

Ailee bent down and looked her in the eyes as Mara arranged the smock, her smock, atop a pile of twigs. "And it is. It all is."

"But not this?"

"Important for later, I mean."

"Oh." Ailee glanced back and saw Luke and Mara drop a lit match onto the smock in tandem, and then step back and watch it burn from a distance. "Ailee?"

Ailee turned her attention back to Neesta, and smiled. "I'll see you later, okay?"

"Where are you going?"

"Not far, Neesta."

Neesta blinked up at her, then smiled back with understanding. "Oh... Say hello to grandpa for me?"

"I'll do that."

Neesta watched as Ailee slowly faded out, and then turned her attention back to her parents. As the fire died down, Luke and Mara knelt on either side and joined hands.

"In memory of a friend," Luke began as he looked in Mara's eyes.

Mara nodded. "In honor of a child not ever seen."

"Always remembered," Luke continued.

"And always thought of," Mara finished. "No matter what may come." She stared into his eyes for a long minute, then nodded again. "I'm glad we came here to do this."

"So am I, Mara. So am I." When the fire was left only cooled embers, they stood, and walked away together.

Unseen beside the pile of cooled embers, Neesta smiled. "I liked that."

Mara stopped and glanced back, and for a moment thought she saw the washed-out shape of a child standing there, smiling. Then it was gone and she had to frown in confusion. Had that been...

"Mara?"

Mara shook her head and had to shrug as she turned back to him. "It's nothing."

"You're sure?"

"Well... no, but I'm not certain what it was."

Luke glanced back at the embers, then looked at Mara again... She seemed alright to him. "Let's go, then."

They left the clearing and Neesta was left to wonder about that little moment. "Ailee's right. That really was odd." She shrugged it off and went to go explore. She'd seen cute furry creatures earlier and wanted a closer look.

~*~*~*~

Mara watched from the passenger seat of the repaired Jade's Fire as Luke guided the ship through Endor's atmosphere, and smiled when he glanced at her. "You were right. Endor was a good choice."

"Glad you think so, Mara… Sure you don't want to fly?"

Mara looked down at the feline in her lap, then up at him again. "You seem to be doing a wonderful job, Luke… and you're cute when you pilot."

Luke stifled a snort at that. "Thanks... Where would you like to go?"

Mara glanced out the viewport for a moment, sighing in thought. "Sacorria."

"Why?"

She frowned at the sudden whininess in his voice. "Because I want to. There's someone we need to visit, I think."

Luke stared at her, then nodded and turned back to the control panel. If she wanted to go to Sacorria, then they were going to Sacorria.

~*~*~*~

Sacorria

~*~*~*~

"Are you sure this is the place?" Luke wondered as they stood on the front porch of a modest house in a Sacorrian suburb.

"Well, no, but it was what Darvis was able to find in way of information," Mara replied as she pressed the doorbell. "If New Republic Medical was wrong, it wouldn't be the first time. Don't think they were, though." The door opened to reveal a man Luke recognized from the last time he'd been here, and the man stared at them. "Hello… are you Drev Hallan?"

The man nodded and looked at Luke. "You taking care of her?"

Luke nodded with a small smile. "Yes."

Drev stepped aside to allow them entry. "Good. Won't you come in?"

"If this is a bad time…" Luke began, before Drev raised a hand to forestall him.

"It's never a bad time for friends who have come so far to say hello. Come on in."

They did.

~*~*~*~

As they entered the living room, Mara turned and handed the box she'd been holding to Drev. Drev stared down at it for a moment, then looked at her curiously. "What is this?"

"Ailee's things from her locker at New Republic Medical."

"You came all this way to give me this?" Drev asked after a moment of silence.

"I wanted to… especially after Luke told me that you sought him out when he was here." She reached back and grabbed Luke's hand. "It means a lot, that you did that, Mr. Hallan."

Drev shook himself of his shock and motioned for them to sit as he set the box down carefully, then looked at the two of them, sitting on his couch in his living room. "So… how was the wedding?"

They spent an hour or three telling him all about it.

~*~*~*~

Aboard the Jade's Fire once more, Mara smiled at Luke after he'd pulled back the lever and sent the ship into hyperspace. She set Dark Star on the floor and moved to kiss him. The tension that had been so prevalent since she'd asked that he take her to Sacorria slowly melted away. When they reluctantly pulled away from one another, Mara smiled. "I love you, Farmboy."

Luke smiled down at her. "I love you, too, Mara… and thank you."

"For what?"

"Giving me better memories to dwell on."

Mara looked into his eyes, and then smiled and kissed him again. That hadn't really been her intention, but she'd take it.


	27. Chapter 27

~*~*~*~

Two weeks from now, somewhere in the multiverse…

~*~*~*~

"Mel?"

"Yes?"

"What possessed us to go the long way home?"

"Nostalgia?"

"Well… at least we have a deck of cards this time around." Ranko glanced around and noticed a familiar guy in green who was playing with his communicator and mumbling to himself. "Terrific." She went over to him and got his attention. "Tommy?"

The youth stopped mumbling at the sound of his name and looked up at her. "What?"

"They'll do fine." Ranko smiled reassuringly and showed him her own communicator, then held out her hand. "Come play cards with us?"

Tommy frowned at her uncertainly before nodding. "Um… sure." He followed her uneasily to a group of people in what appeared to be color-coordinated outfits. "Who are you people?"

"Long story and we're not staying that long… and this is the second time we've had this exact same thing happen to us."

"What?"

"Getting kidnapped by Rita during Power Rangers Day," Ranko clarified with a shrug. "First time around, all we were able to do was origami."

Tommy stared at her, dumbfounded. "This has happened to you before?"

"Yep… Wanna know what's going on out there with your team mates?"

"How would you know that?"

"I'm from another dimension, Mr. Oliver," Ranko replied humourlessly.

"Oh… sure. Tell me, please."

Ranko glanced around to make certain no one, other than her team mates, were close enough to overhear them, then beckoned him closer. "They get their asses kicked at first, and then there's something Zordon finds out that they can use, and there's this huge Zord fight where they switch modes faster than you can blink. Due to a programming error, Goldar get's his butt kicked like nothing else." Ranko smiled as he looked at her in disbelief. "We could be stuck here a while, though, while all of that happens."

"I just wish I could help," Tommy muttered. "I hate being stuck on the sidelines."

"You are helping, Mr. Oliver. There's people here that need to see you be strong right now." She motioned to their fellow captives who were milling about and talking to others.

Tommy followed her hand motion and had to nod in agreement. "Thank you."

"I'd like to be out there, too, but… let's just say that lack of a Zord is a bit of a problem and I don't think Cyclopsis would be hindered much by lightning." Ranko glanced around to see where the rest of her people were besides the ones who were playing Go Fish, and noticed that Elsie was chatting amiably with a blonde woman who was holding a note pad. "Odd…"

"What is?"

"Elsie isn't much for talking to reporters. She must like that one."

Elsie chatted with the blonde woman for another minute or so before tearing herself away and joining them. "Nice kid."

"With a bright future?" Ranko asked knowingly.

"Something like that, yes." Elsie grinned at Tommy. "Hi… So which did you pick, Mr. Oliver? Go Fish or Origami?"

"If you have a deck of cards... can we play poker?"

"No."

"Why not?"

"You ever try to pick up where you left off with poker after you had to fight shape shifting spiders for an entire afternoon?"

"Umm… no?"

"That's why. Plus, poker always gave a friend of mine migraines. She still can't go near a casino without extra-strength Tylenol."

"All right, then… Go Fish, it is."

~*~*~*~

A day ago…

~*~*~*~

Mara was standing at the caf maker in the academy cafeteria, reflecting on their trip when she noticed the plaque mounted on the wall. She stared at it for a long moment before snorting in laughter and nodding in agreement. Yes… she really would.

Turning around, Mara found that Corran was watching her from a table thirty feet away, and nodded to him with a smile while she took a sip of her caf. Corran returned her nod and raised his own cup with a barely-represeed smile. Mara just shook her head and went to join him. "That wasn't really what I meant, you know…"

"Well… she did like her caf," Corran told her as she sat down.

"True." Mara glanced back at the plaque and smiled again. It really did fit.

~*~*~*~

Now…

~*~*~*~

Mara opened the door to what was now their apartment and had to stop when she heard some very odd music. It made her want to meditate and dance at the same time. Following the music to the living room, she found Luke floating in midair with his eyes closed.

She watched him for a long minute before sitting down on the floor and joining him in the meditation. If he was startled at her joining him, he didn't show it. Instead, he silently welcomed her into the meditation with open 'arms'.

They meditated and explored each other for hours…

~*~*~*~*~

In between sessions of the Unarmed Self Defense Class that she had begun teaching, Mara was pouring through official records, looking for information. She wasn't sure why she was looking this hard, but it had to be important. The Force kept urging her to look through teraquads of data... but she wasn't searching in the right spot. She knew she wasn't, or she would have found it by now.

Artoo rolled in and beeped at her, and she glanced up at him, frowning. "I have no idea what I'm looking for, little guy." He rolled closer, held out a mechanical arm, waiting for something. She frowned again, and carefully handed the datapad to him, wondering if that was what he wanted.

Artoo jacked into the datapad and a minute went by as Mara watched him. Then he beeped excitedly and gave the pad back to her. She looked down at the data curiously... and the Force urged her that that was what she'd been seeking. Smiling, Mara stood up, placing a band on Artoo's dome. "Thank you. That's exactly it." She started to leave the room, then turned back and looked at the short, rounded droid. "I'm cancelling my last class of the day, Artoo." Artoo trilled at her in acknowledgement, and Mara left the room.

~*~*~*~*~

Luke had just dismissed his last class for the day when Mara stepped through the door with a balloon in one hand, and a slice of what looked like cake in the other. She waited while the students filed out, and then approached him. "What's with..."

She set the cake down and dragged him into a kiss in greeting. Then she smiled at him. "These are for you."

"Me?"

"Yes. You... your Life Day was yesterday. Why didn't you tell me?"

Luke stared at her for a long moment, then looked away. "It's just another day, Mara."

She handed the cake and the balloon to him. "Oh really? Why?"

"It just is... I don't even know if it's my real one, or one my aunt and uncle made up."

Mara could feel the pain under those words. The doubt that he wasn't voicing, and the one the he was. She nudged his chin and he looked at her again. "Does it matter if it is? You are you, no matter if the date is real or not. I love you, Luke Skywalker. For you."

Luke gazed into her eyes, realizing that she meant every word. He set the cake down on the lecturn and pulled her into a kiss. When he reluctantly pulled away, Luke glanced at the balloon he was still holding. "This was a little much, don't you think?" It was blue, shaped like a cat's head, and had whiskers.

Mara smiled at him. "If Ghent can do it to everybody in the trade group, then I can do it to you."

"Think Dark Star will attack it on sight?"

"Probably. She hates balloons with a passion. Was a bit of a surprise, finding that out two weeks after she came on board with me." Mara motioned to the cake. "Eat your cake, Farmboy."

"Share it with me?"

"All right..."

~*~*~*~

Elsewhere in the multiverse...

~*~*~*~

"Ranko, if we ever get the urge to use that thing again, remind me that Clark Kent punches like a super-powered mule," Whuki muttered as they walked through a very familiar shopping center. "I don't ever want to have to wear down a drugged Kryptonian ever again."

Ranko rolled her eyes in Whuki's direction. "You could have said no, you know."

"Yes, but that doesn't mean I don't get to complain if I want to."

"Still seeing double?"

"No."

"Good..." Ranko glanced around, then pulled out their dementional portal. Frowning, she handed it to Ralarna. "You're the expert on this thing, Rala. If we had been here before, would it be almost completely discharged?"

Ralarna shook her head as she looked at the indicator screen. "I don't think so."

"I was going to ask that very question," Ariel spoke up, turning to Ranko. "Didn't we just leave Coruscant, like weeks ago? How could the portal just drop us off here again?"

"Ordinarily, it can't," Ralarna muttered. "And the first time was kind of a random accident. Kind of." A gasp stopped them in their tracks, and everyone turned to look at Elsie, who was standing stock still. "Elsie?"

"Oh wow," the shock in her voice, combined with the expression of incredulity on her face, made everybody frown and follow her line of sight.

"What's so shocking about that woman and the kid with her?" Melinda asked, puzzled. "They look perfectly normal to me." She turned back to Elsie to find that she'd collapsed into Chris' arms. "Uhh..."

Chris slowly lowered Elsie to the ground, glancing up at Ranko when he got her all the way down. "She never does that... and there's nothing here that would explain it, either." Unless... he scanned the area, and found that the woman had picked up the child and was heading straight for them. He blinked at the sudden familiarity. But it couldn't be... could it?

Ranko knelt down beside him and began to check Elsie out for herself, when a voice interrupted her, asking if she needed help. She looked up, saw the competency in the other woman's eyes, and nodded. "She seems fine, but another opinion is always good."

Just then, Elsie gasped and sat up, blinking at them. She glanced at Chris. "Sorry."

"Don't be. Could have happened to anyone," Chris told her. "I was about to break out the smelling salts, though."

"Ugh..." Elsie turned her attention to the woman who had joined them, and her eyes widened. "Ailee?"

Ailee frowned. "How do you know my name? I didn't say..."

Elsie turned her attention to the child sitting on her haunches next to Ailee, and had to stare. "Ranko?"

"What?"

"This isn't the same place. It really, really isn't." She moved to get up, but Ailee shook her head. "I'm fine, all right? You don't need to go all medic on me."

"Let me be the judge of that." Ailee pulled out a pen light. "Follow this with your eyes, please? Up, down, to the side... other side. Thank you. Now... how many fingers?"

"Two."

"Good. You can get up now if you want to."

Elsie rolled her eyes and got up. Was it just possible that the woman was more annoying alive than she was dead? "Thanks."

Ailee glanced down at the little girl. "Well, munchkin? Still want to go to Ewok Fun Land after this?"

The little girl nodded. "Yes! I wanna go, Ailee!"

"Then we will go... after I found out how you know my name, ma'am." She looked hard at Elsie, who glanced at Chris. "And what do you mean by this not being the same place as before?"

Elsie shook her head. "It's a long story, and I'd rather not say."

Ailee glanced around, sighing. "Great." She bent down to look the little girl in the eyes. "Do you mind if we put it off an hour or two, Neesta?"

At that, Chris got it. "We took a left turn at Albuquerque, didn't we? Wow..."

Ariel had to laugh. "Chris, that explanation only works for Bugs Bunny."

Ralarna glanced down at the Frisbee in her hand, and smirked. "Oddly appropriate, though."

They did not make it to Ewok Fun Land for a while...

~*~*~*~

Months later...

~*~*~*~

She was way past annoyed as she sat in the chair beside a student in the Coruscant Planetary Police Headquarters, watching as various officers went about their daily routines. Of all the stupid things a student could do while on a study break...

"I didn't mean to break that window, Jedi Jade," the student muttered from beside her.

Mara did not reply. She'd have bitten his head of with words out of frustration and that was not what he needed to hear. Not that not saying anything mattered or not... the feelings were rolling off her in waves.

"Mara?" a familiar, impossible voice asked, causing Mara to turn and blink. "Hi."

"Elsie? What are you doing here?"

Elsie, in a CPPF uniform, joined them in the chairs and smiled comfortingly at her. "I finally got clearance for an internship, so here I am. We'd have called you, but... things have been a little hectic for a week or so. Lots to learn and whatnot. Aside from the obvious, how are you?"

Mara stared at her, processing what Elsie had just said, then snorted. "Fine."

"That good, huh?" Elsie glanced at the student, then looked at Mara again. "You're invited to dinner. You and Luke, I mean. And the law-breaker here, too. I'll send directions to the Praxeum."

Mara blinked as Elsie got up and walked away, then looked at the student in amusement. "Somehow, I think she was serious." The student just nodded.

~*~*~*~

Mara waited until Luke had dismissed the students before entering the class room. "Hi."

He turned and smiled at her as he was putting the practice swords away. "I was wondering when you'd be back... how bad was it?"

"Not too... he broke a window. The CPPF let him go with a warning, and now he's under house arrest here."

Luke frowned as she went silent, then put a hand on her arm. "Is something wrong, other than that?"

Mara shook her head. "Not really... Elsie and Chris invited us and our errant student to dinner."

Luke blinked at her, surprised to hear those names. "What?"

"She said something about an internship, whatever that means." Mara shrugged. "You done here?"

"I guess so..." Luke looked down at the practice sword in his hand, then at her again. "This counts as the weird thing of the day, doesn't it?"

Mara smiled. "Seems that way."

~*~*~*~

After dinner, Elsie pulled Mara into the kitchen with the explanation of "We're going to clean up." Mara watched as Elsie pulled something out of a drawer. "Elsie, I don't see how this is cleaning anything up."

Elsie handed the package to her. "You're not helping me do the dishes, Mara. I just wanted to give you this... I promised I'd get you something. This is that something."

Mara frowned at her and opened the package. It was a hard-bound book? "What is this?"

"Open it. We had a bit of an adventure on our way home, and... got a surprise."

Mara opened the book. Inside were holos of a little girl she'd seen only once, in the monitor of Elsie's laptop screen. Flipping the pages curiously, she stopped when one of the holos presented an impossible image. "How...?" Ailee and Neesta, together with her and Luke. And Luke was holding Neesta?

"That was the surprise," Elsie told her gently. "I wanted you to know. She's alive, somewhere out there. They both are." Mara stared at the image, and her eyes began to well up with tears. She wanted to thank Elsie for showing her, but couldn't speak. Elsie, seeing that Mara was overwhelmed, slowly took the book out of her hands and set it aside. Then she pulled Mara to her, and comforted her with a touch. "I'm sorry, Mara. I just thought..."

"Thank you," Mara finally whispered, her voice raw.

Elsie noticed Chris standing in the doorway to the kitchen and shook her head at him. "You're welcome, Mara." Chris, satisfied that all was well, left them to it.

~*~*~*~*~

Mara found a safe place for the book Elsie had given her, then turned to find Luke standing there. "Dinner was good, don't you think?"

Luke nodded. "It was. Are you alright?"

She smiled at him. "I am." She put her arms around him, and he let her hold him for a minute. "We have a little something to talk about..."

"Oh really?"

"Yes."

"And what would that be?"

The glint in her eyes and she stared meaningfully up at him made Luke smile. "Plenty."

They spent the rest of the evening... talking.


	28. Chapter 28

It had been a quiet day for a day off, until Neesta popped in unexpectedly with a question: "What's it like to smell things?"

Elsie blinked and turned from the bowl she was mixing ingredients in to look at the translucent little girl. "Why do you ask?"

Neesta shrugged. "Ailee mentioned missing the smell of caf, and Momma said that the roses Daddy gave her smelled nice, and you smelling what you cooked… So what is smelling like?"

Elsie sighed. Of all the questions she could have asked, Neesta had picked probably the hardest one… How best to answer it? "Well… it's kind of like hearing sound, Neesta. Only with your nose."

Neesta looked at her with an odd expression. "Does smell have a echo?"

Elsie chuckled. "I guess it can, a little…"

Neesta nodded, then looked at her inquisitively. "Can a smell be loud?"

Elsie thought about that one, then nodded her assent. "Yes. Very loud. So loud sometimes that it's hard to 'hear' anything else behind it… with your nose, though, if that makes sense."

"And it can be really faint so you don't know it's there?"

"That, too…" Elsie was beginning to wonder where this was going.

"Is it like touching?" Neesta asked as she came to stand next to Elsie and tried to look into the bowl that she was mixing things in. "I understand touching a little."

Elsie turned away from the bowl again and saw that the little girl was standing on her tiptoes, trying to get a better look. She obliged her and tipped it so Neesta could see. "Yes, it's a little like touching… only with your nose and not your hands. A smell can grab you, just like a hand can."

Neesta concentrated and smiled when her hand didn't go through the bowl. Neesta let go of the bowl when Elsie gave her a stern look. "And what's it like to taste?"

"Asking all the hard questions today, aren't you?" This just got more interesting all the while, didn't it?

"Yes… What's it like?"

"A lot like sound, really."

"A taste can be loud and echo, too?"

Elsie nodded, suddenly glad that this hadn't been the first question. Thank the Universe for small favors. "Yes, it really can do that. Spicy things are really loud, and other things echo later, and some tastes are so faint that you don't quite know they're there."

"Is it like seeing?"

Elsie nodded. "Yes. With your mouth. The taste buds see, just like your eyes do, but in a different way."

Neesta was silent for several long minutes as she watched Elsie coax the mixture into something edible. Then she sat down on the floor and pouted. "I want to smell something."

Elsie glanced down at her and sighed. "I know, kiddo."

"It's not fair, Elsie."

Elsie sat down and really looked at the translucent little girl. There was so much she wanted to say, but the expression in Neesta's eyes made her stop. "You're right. It's not."

~*~*~*~

Of all the things that Elsie thought she'd be doing when she had argued with her team leader to be able to do the internship, teaching a ghost to play patty cake on her day off hadn't been on of them.

"Okay," Elsie said as she held up her hands up. "One more time, kiddo. And focus, all right?"

The spectral little girl shook her head. "No. Not one more time. I don't wanna do this anymore."

"You said you wanted to touch things, Neesta… How can you do that if you don't practice, hmm?"

"It's hard, Elsie," Neesta said as she turned and looked out of the window of the apartment.

"I didn't say it wasn't…" Elsie sighed and put her hands down. She'd tried it six times and still couldn't. Elsie stood up and moved to block Neesta's view of the window. "And, really, nothing worth doing is ever easy… One more time, all right?"

"But Elsie! I don't want to play patty cake! It's hard and it's silly!"

Elsie rolled her eyes, and stopped short when she saw Mara standing in the doorway to the living room, mouth agape. "Hi. She doesn't want to practice, I guess."

"I heard her," Mara breathed, finally finding her voice. "I know I did."

Elsie glanced down at Neesta, who had swung around to stare at Mara. "That's something new…" She was suddenly incredibly glad that she'd invited Mara over earlier in the day.

"Momma heard me?"

Mara tilted her head, frowning. That whisper of a voice, just like before… "Keep her talking."

"Huh?" Elsie asked.

"I heard Luke like this. A kind of whispering static… the more he talked, the more I heard him, until there he was, sitting right next to me."

"Oh…" Elsie bent down and whispered into Neesta's ear. "Well, kiddo? You want to play patty cake so she can hear you?"

Neesta nodded fervently, then turned back around to face Elsie. "Okay."

Elsie sat back down and held her hands up. "All right. This time, you say the words, and remember to focus. That's really important."

Neesta took a deep breath that she didn't need, and held up her own spectral hands. "Patty cake… Aw! I went through your hands again!"

"Focus, child," Elsie told her with a smile. "Again."

Mara watched and listened as Elsie silently played patty cake for twenty minutes with thin air, the whispery static building into something coherent a little at a time, until suddenly she could hear a young voice singing an odd rhyme and occasionally complaining about going through Elsie's hands. And then, just as slowly, in an odd way that gave her déjà vu, a small form in front of Elsie came into focus. A little girl with blond hair that almost seemed to glow red, wearing a ship suit… and still going through Elsie's hands.

Mara sank to her knees, stunned at the sight of the little girl she only ever seen on Elsie's laptop screen.

Elsie called a halt, and turned to see Mara, sitting on the floor and staring at Neesta with wide eyes. "Mara?"

"I can see her…"

"Really?" Neesta asked, not used to hearing that someone besides Elsie could see and hear her. "Momma can see me?"

"Yes," Mara told her, causing Neesta to blink in surprise. "I can see you. Come here." Slowly, Neesta approached her and they really looked at one another for the first time.

"Um," Neesta started to say uncertainly.

"Did you like Endor?" Mara asked curiously.

Neesta smiled and nodded. "Yes, Momma… especially the furry ones."

"I'm glad… Elsie?"

"Yes?"

"Can she touch yet? That is what you were working on, right?"

"Not really… Give it a go and see what happens… Neesta, teach your mom to play patty cake."

Neesta looked back at Elsie in consideration, then nodded and faced Mara again. "Okay… Momma, hold your hands up like this."

Mara did as Neesta demonstrated. "What now?"

"Do as I do… Patty cake, patty cake, bake…" At the sudden contact, Neesta blinked and stared up at Mara with wide eyes. She was actually touching someone or something, and that someone was her mother… "I did it! I did it! Elsie, I did it!"

Mara blinked as Neesta danced around the room and Elsie shook her head with a smile. "Uh…"

"I did it, Momma!"

"Yes, you did… Come on, now. Let's try again, all right?"

Still giggling, Neesta sat back down and held up her hands eagerly. "This is fun now!"

"Only after you messed it up a lot," Elsie smilingly teased her. "Practice helped."

Neesta taught Mara to play patty cake for the rest of the afternoon.

~*~*~*~*~

Later, when Luke arrived home, he found Mara in the kitchen, standing at the counter with a content smile. "Hi."

"I got to see Neesta today."

At that, he had to pause. "I'm sorry?"

"Just what I said. I saw her… really saw her… and she learned to touch."

Luke smiled. "Oh. That's good… is she still here?"

"No. She had to leave… She said she'd be back later, though she wasn't certain how long that would be."

Luke put his arm around her and she melted into his embrace. "I'm glad you got to see her, Mara."

"Mmmm… Love you."

"I love you, too, Mara." He bent and kissed her soundly.

They stayed like that until the timer that Mara had set for the oven interrupted them.

~*~*~*~

She felt more than slightly ridiculous as she raked the dirt outside the academy walls in an environmental suit, but perhaps that was the purpose of the excersize. She'd come out here for some solitude after getting frustrated with a student and had grabbed the rake on the way, and now felt somewhat calmer… if somewhat more than ridiculous.

Slowly, she raked the dust back and forth, and then made a picture with the strokes and smirked.

[Mara?] a voice crackled through her helmet comm. [Why are you raking the dirt outside? It's dirt.]

She made an alteration and smirked again. "I'm meditating."

[In an environmental suit?]

"Yes… you got a problem with that, Farmboy?"

[No, just checking on you.]

Mara snorted in laughter and raked the dirt some more. Then she stepped back and looked at it again… the sheer cuteness made her smile qenuinely. She'd always wondered what Palpatine would have looked like with a puppy in his hands. Finally feeling relaxed, Mara took the rake back inside. She left the drawing at it was, there in the dirt.

~*~*~*~

Luke met her at the airlock, and waited while she took her helmet off. "Feel better?"

"Much."

"Good," Luke said as he pulled her into his arms and surprised her with a solid kiss.

When they pulled away, Mara smiled at him. "If you'd done that earlier, I'd have stayed inside with you."

"Let's get you out of that environmental suit, shall we?" Mara nodded and let him lead her away from the airlock. She glanced back once, and smirked again at the rake she'd left by the airlock door. That drawing had been priceless…


	29. Never Trust a Magic Elf

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: A friend (whom I deeply thank) dared me to do a Star Wars/Animaniacs crossover. That's how this part came about, and also how I got nominated for Best Humor for the fic awards. Enjoy. :)

It was a dark and dreary night, and the being with the pointed ears sighed as he stared into the crackling, dancing flames. He was bored. Nothing of interest had happened in way, way too long, and that just wouldn't do.

As the fire danced and crackled, crackled and danced, he began to doze off and imagine that he was on a high adventure with Lassie and Spyro the Dragon... and then he was startled awake by a sudden sensation on his foot.

Blinking his eyes open, the elf looked down and saw... what appeared to be a very small net, covering his right foot. Holding the net were two mice, one with a big head, and the other tall, with somewhat of an overbite. "Uh..."

The mouse with the big head looked up at him. "We have captured you, Elf."

"Um..." Did capturing mean putting a net on his foot that he could just as easily kick off? "Right... if you say so..."

"I wish to take over the world."

The elf blinked again. "Um... that's a very broad category, Mr. Mouse... Which world?" He had the feeling that cosmic law would somehow end up preventing this plan from coming to fruition, but why not humor the little guy?

The mouse opened up a small book and showed him. "This one."

The elf gently took the booklet and squinted at it. Then he glanced down at the mouse again. "You're sure?"

"Yes."

The elf looked hard at the booklet again, then handed it back to the mouse. "All right... Wish granted."

And without another word, the two mice vanished.

The elf sat there for a few moments, then shook his head and chuckled. That was one for the books... a mouse wishing to take over an alternate reality. Who was he to tell the mouse that the wish was going to backfire?

~*~*~*~*~*~

Mara stood at the stove making breakfast for the two of them and humming a tune to herself while she waited for the bacon to brown. She had somewhat more energy today than she'd had in recent weeks, and felt good, rather than so tired she wanted to fall asleep on her feet.

Hands began to massage and knead her shoulders and she sighed in contentment. "Mmmm... keep doing that..." Slowly, she got the bacon out of the pan, and set it on a serving plate, then reached for the eggs and broke them into the pan.

"Feels good, doesn't it?" the familiar husky voice said into her ear.

"Yes, Luke. Feels wonderful."

"And how are the two of you this morning?"

Mara flipped the eggs and glanced back over her shoulder at him with a smirk. "'We' are fine, Farmboy. Or, rather, I'm fine and the little one is kicking occasionally... Glad you asked, though…"

Luke nodded, then looked over her shoulder. "Want me to take over?"

"No… Just keep massaging my shoulders, or go sit down and wait..." She kissed him on the nose, and then returned her attention to the cooking.

Luke kneeded her shoulders some more, and then had to pause when he felt her tense under his hands and something very much like pain, but not quite, radiate off of her through the Force at the same time... "Mara?"

She ignored him for a moment while she put the eggs on another serving plate, then shook her head. "It's nothing... back spasm." She picked up the plates, then ducked under his hands and went to set the food on the table.

Luke watched her for a long moment... that had not felt like a spasm, but… "All right…" He joined her at the table. "Do you want me to stay home, or..."

She shook her head, then looked at him with a smile. "You have classes, and Elsie's going to meet me later for a shopping excursion. Then we're meeting Leia for lunch."

Luke nodded, then tilted his head in question. "You're having a back spasm like that and you're going shopping?"

Mara shrugged and looked away. "If it gets worse, I can always sit down."

Luke, having learned even more about her temperament over the past several months, simply nodded, took a bite of his breakfast, and did not press the issue further.

~*~*~*~*~*~

Sometimes, when something happens to upset the balance, it is something small. So small that it goes unnoticed at the start. This time was no different.

At a shopping center somewhere in Imperial City, two white mice appeared out of thin air. Being as they were small, no one noticed them... except for the Force.

Now, the Force took note of it, and tried to embrace the newcomers with open, questioning tendrils of awareness. The newcomers didn't notice, and the Force ran into something unfamiliar... there were no midicholrians. None. Instead, there was an energy pattern around both, and the energy pattern kept the Force from touching them. The Force tried harder, and… the energy pattern took notice and pushed back.

A small tug of war ensued, and... both lost.

It's been said before, but here it bares repeating: Of things that seem simple from the start is weirdness begun. This time would be no exception.

~*~*~*~*~*~

It began with Momma wanting a bassinette. No, really... it did. Momma wanted something for the new baby to sleep in when it arrived, and Elsie volunteered to help her look, and because it was a visiting day, I got to go along. I'll never understand why people go shopping when they could just as easily make what they wanted out of thin air if they tried hard enough... Plus, it looks stressful. All that walking around, carrying shopping bags... fretting over this and that...

Oh, right. Sorry. Anyway... Momma and Elsie were admiring this cute little white bassinette when the first weird thing happened. Three beings with black fur and white faces, and tails ran through the baby department of the store, leaving Elsie and Momma to stare after them, and me wondering what had caused three kids to run like that.

"Neesta?"

"Yes, Momma?"

"Did you just see what looked like three small children with tails run through here?"

As an overweight security guard with a butterfly net came running through, puffing with exertion, I nodded. "Yes, Momma."

"Good girl." Momma turned and looked at Elsie, only to find her bewildered. "Elsie? Something wrong?"

"I didn't just imagine that, did I? Tell me I'm seeing after-images again, Neesta. Please tell me I am."

I had to shake my head in the negative. "No. We saw it, too... Is that bad?"

"From a certain point of view." Elsie blinked a few times, then looked at the bassinette they'd been admiring. "I like this one."

"How can you..." Momma began, before Elsie held up a hand to forestall her.

"Easily, Mara. I'm clingling to anything normal while I still can."

"Excuse me..."

I looked down at the sound of the faint voice. Standing at my spectral feet were two white mice, dressed in clothing. I bent down to get a better look at them. "Yes?"

The one with the big head peered up at me. "Can you direct us to the Imperial Palace? We seem to have lost our way and were supposed to be in a meeting with the Emperor to discuss terms for his surrender of all power to... me."

I couldn't help but stare at him. "Um... Elsie?"

"Just give him directions, Neesta," Elsie said absently. "No need to tell him that his plan his doomed."

"Do you know something about this?" Momma asked her.

"Plenty. Admire the pretty bassinette, Mara, and maybe this will be the only weirdness we see today that doesn't involve your daughter."

I blinked again, and looked down at the mice. "Go outside and hang a left. It's sixteen streets to the north, and then a right. Can't miss it."

"Thank you." He turned to his companion. "Now remember, Pinky. Our plan is to walk in and join Palpatine's empire, and then to upsurp his power and take it for our own."

"Narf! Sure thing, Brain."

As I watched the mouse and his companion walk away, I couldn't help but wonder what had brought that on. "Weird."

"You don't know the half of it, Kiddo," Elsie muttered. I stood up, noticing that she was fiddling with the ruffled edge of material, and concentrating on it and nothing else. "This isn't as well made as some I've seen elsewhere, but I like it."

At the sound of a whimper, I turned to find a little girl, her mother... and an animal reluctantly following them, led by a leash. Had the whimper come from the four-legged brown animal? And why did it appear to be absolutely miserable?

"What do you think of it, Mara? Like this one?"

"I think you have some explaining to do."

"No, Mara. The bassinette, not that other stuff."

"Yes, Elsie. I like the bassinette."

"Enough to want it in your apartment?"

I turned back to see Momma shrug and look at it some more. "I guess... why don't you want to tell us what's going on?"

"Say it's name and you destroy it."

I couldn't help but blink at that very odd statement. "What is that supposed to mean?"

"It means that I want to leave well enough alone... That, and the last time something like this happened, I ended up seeing music and hearing colors."

"Silence," Momma said suddenly.

Elsie turned to look at her. "Well... yes, but that's not the point."

"How do you see music?" I wondered.

Elsie sighed and looked at the bassinette. "You don't want to know... I really do like this bassinette."

"Now, Mindy... you're not to touch anything in here. Understand?" I turned back and saw the mother bending down and looking into the little girl's eyes.

"Okay, Lady!"

The woman sighed. "It's Mom, Mindy. Call me Mom."

"Okay, Lady!"

The animal looked over at me and whimpered. So that's where the whimpering had some from... Somehow, I couldn't help but feel sympathy for it.

"Oh, no... Mara? Do you want the bassinette or not?"

Momma sounded kind of amused in her reply. "Yes... Why is the sight of a dog making you panic?"

"It's not the dog. The dog is the sane one over there. It's the girl... And aren't we meeting Leia for lunch?"

I turned back again to see Momma checking her chrono. You know, for some reason, Elsie calls that a watch... But why? It's not watching anything! "You mean the girl isn't sane?"

"Oh, I'm sure she will be later on in life, but... There's a reason that dog looks absolutely miserable."

Momma looked up from her chrono. "You're right. We are supposed to be meeting Leia for lunch. Anytime, actually."

"Then, if you want the bassinette..." Elsie trailed off suggestively. Is it a grown-up thing to drop major hints like that?

"Are you trying to talk me into this just because you're avoiding the weirdness?"

"No."

"All right, then."

"I think it's pretty and all babies should have at least one pretty thing at least once."

I was about to say something, but two voices interrupted me: "Helllo Nurse!" Turning, I saw the three beings again, two of them staring at Momma and Elsie with their mouths open. Then they fainted.

The girl rolled her eyes. "Boys. Go fig." She came over and looked at the bassinette. "I agree with what she said about this, though. Pretty is as pretty does."

Elsie appeared to be resisting an outright laugh. "Got away from Ralph so soon, Dot?"

"He's easy to lose..." Dot looked over at me, squinting. "Do you always wear an unflattering jumpsuit?"

I blinked and looked down at my outfit. I hadn't ever worn clothes, and this is what I'd been able to think up when Ailee explained the concept to me. "What's wrong with my jumpsuit?"

"It's not cute. Clothes should be cute. Like me." As I glared at her, Elsie bent down and whispered something in Dot's ear. Dot blinked and looked at her. "What? Really?" As Elsie nodded, Dot turned back to me with wide eyes. "Oh... I'm sorry. I didn't know that. Would you like some help with learning about cute clothes?"

I looked up at Momma. "Can I?"

Momma nodded. "I don't see why not... I feel bad when you watch us eat as it is, and this... person seems all right." She looked at Elsie. "What about the other two?"

"Oh, them? They'll be up about... now. Dot, do try to keep your zany brothers under control, would ya? I know that's not easy, but nothing worth doing ever is."

Dot rolled her eyes. "I'll try."

"What'd they mean by "hello nurse?"" I wondered, as Elsie picked up the bassinette. "Neither you nor Momma is a Nurse."

Elsie paused and looked at Dot. "Perhaps you can explain that one to her?"

Dot nodded. "I think I could do that."

"Okay, then. Have fun, Neesta... and try not to cause any mayhem out of the ordinary."

"Hey!" I yelled. "I do not cause mayhem!"

"Tell me that when you learn to pick something up and not cause a scene."

Momma chuckled. "You are so explaining all of this later."

"Not if I can help it."

As Momma and Elsie walked away, Dot smiled at me. "You know, for a pregnant lady, your mom sure is pretty. My brothers were right to yell that."

I couldn't help but look at her funny. "Huh?"

~*~*~*~*~*~

The elf sat beside the campfire, playing a lute and watching the full moon disappear behind a thick cover of trees. He hadn't told the mouse this, but... his wish granting always went wonky around the time of the full moon. It didn't matter what he did, or what the wish was. Some how, some way, the wishes went a bit wild.

The mouse hadn't been specific, other than the place, when he'd made the wish, so... it was a vague possibility that it had gone somewhat wrong.

'No,' he thought as he looked down at his colorful, hand-knit socks. 'I know it has.'

The elf sighed and returned to playing his lute. He'd have to see about that later... if the situation didn't correct itself when the power of the wish returned to normal with the changing phases of the moon.

'And,' he thought as he glanced down at his socks again, 'I have to remember to thank my mother for the socks. They are very comfy. I love the socks.'

He played his lute long into the night.

~*~*~*~*~*~

Han sighed as he walked through the shopping center with Jacen and Jaina. He'd wanted to make this a family outing, but with Mara set to have the baby at any time, who knew if he'd actually get the chance to take the twins to Ewok Funland on their birthday in a week's time? And so, when Winter had volunteered to babysit Anakin, he had taken the opportunity to do this and treat Jacen and Jaina to something special... even if it meant listening to that droning song all afternoon.

About halfway to the place, Jaina tugged on his hand and he looked down at her. "What is it, Jaina?"

"I'm thirsty, Daddy!"

Han blinked down at her for a moment, then nodded. A thirsty child was never a sign of something good about to happen... "All right..." He looked down at Jacen, and noticed the boy was distracted and not paying attention. "Jacen? Are you thirsty, too?"

"I like those," Jacen said as he pointed with a little finger.

Han followed Jacen's direction and saw two odd-looking, small creatures... Were those mice wearing clothes that vaguely resembled Jedi outfits of old? That made no sense...

"Elelator went down the hole!"

At the sudden, young-sounding, excited voice, Han startled and turned to find a small... green child with an orange bill for a mouth and wearing a diaper. He frowned... were it not for the coloring and the differences in shape, the little one being led away from a lift by what appeared to be it's mother, would have born a heavy resemblance to a Gungan. At least, from what he'd heard about Gungans, anyway.

"Yes, Plucky. The elevator went down the hole," the mother said tiredly.

"Again! Again!"

"No, not today."

"Press buttons! Again!"

Han watched them walk away for a minute, then glanced down when Jaina tugged at his hand again. "Yes?"

"Can we go on the lift and press buttons, Daddy?"

"I thought you were thirsty?"

"I am!"

"Then how about we go get something to drink, do what we came here to do... and if you still want to ride on the lift afterward, we can do that."

Jaina considered that for a long moment, then nodded. "Okay."

Han looked down at Jacen, who was still distracted. "And Jacen?"

"They're lost... Can I have them?" Jacen asked, finally looking up at his father, a pleading expression in his eyes.

"The... oh. Those..." Han watched the two little creatures, then shook his head. "I don't think so..."

~*~*~*~*~*~

"Pinky, I don't think this is our correct destination," Brain said with frustration in his tone. They'd been wandering around inside the building, and nothing appeared to be as it should. "Those directions from that spectral girl were wrong."

Pinky looked around, trying to remember what the blue-glowing, spectral girl had said, and instead was distracted by the glinting off something shiny on a counter. "Narf! Brain, this time we should dance the polka."

Brain glanced at him for a moment, then nodded. "Yes, Pinky. We should make our way outside."

"Okay, Brain, but I don't want to wear the tu-tu."

As they passed a sign that said "Ewok Funland" in basic, neither one saw the snow cone dropped from above.

~*~*~*~*~

Han didn't really like this place, but the twins loved it, and that made it bareable... in small doses. He glanced at Jaina and noticed that something was missing. "Jaina? Where's your snow cone?"

Jaina blinked up at him from her slice of pizza. "I dropped it. It was an accident."

"Are you still thirsty?"

Jaina shook her head. "No."

"That's good, then..." Han sat back to watch as the twins ate their pizza, only occasionally lifting a piece with the Force. He still didn't like this place.

~*~*~*~*~

In the Skywalker apartment, a black feline with a white patch on its head dozes contentedly by a window in the sunlight.

A noise sounds on the window sill outside, and she immediately becomes aware and looks out the window with narrowed, golden eyes.

Staring back at her are three... birds that seem to be arguing among themselves.

A low growl sounds from the feline's throat, and the birds fly away.

The feline is left to stare out the window for a long while.

~*~*~*~*~

Mara glanced back and saw Neesta deep in conversation with Dot. "Do you think it's all right, leaving her with that... girl?"

Elsie nodded. "She'll be fine. If anything, giving Dottie and her brothers something to focus on will keep them out of trouble."

"You're still explaining this later."

They reached the sales counter and Elsie set the bassinette down. "No, I'm not."

The sales lady smiled at them. "Will this be all for today, ladies?"

Mara nodded. "Yes."

The sales lady rang them up, and then looked at Mara. "We can have this delivered to your home, if you desire."

Mara opened her mouth to say something, but was cut off by Elsie's hand on her arm. "What?"

"Don't reject the offer." Elsie smiled at the sales lady. "That will be fine. Thank you."

After giving the sales lady her information, Mara and Elsie walked away from the counter. "Why'd you do that?"

"I don't want to have to carry that bassinette all day." Elsie glanced at Mara, evaluating with her eyes, and raised an eyebrow at Mara favoring her back. "You feeling all right?"

Mara nodded absently as she massaged the small of her back. "Fine... just a spasm."

"Right..." Suppressing a smile, Elsie led the way to the restaurant. Along the way, she noticed a snow cone on the ground and stooped to pick it up. Under the snow cone, embedded in the ice, were two rather familiar mice. She blinked. "What in the... that was fast."

"What?" Mara asked curiously.

Elsie shook her head and watched as they got themselves out of the ice, the taller one waving at her. "Hi, there."

"Never trust a magic elf, Pinky," the one with the big head muttered to his companion. "Never trust a magic elf."

"Zort! Right, Brain!"

"Let us go back to the lab, and prepare for tomorrow night."

"Why, Brain? What we gonna do tomorrow night?"

"Same thing we do every night, Pinky. Try to take over the world!"

Elsie watched as the mice walked off, then stood up, snow cone wrapper still in hand. "Huh... I think that tops all time ways for a Pinky and the Brain plot to get foiled. But... a magic elf? Seriously?" She looked at Mara. "That explains everything, I think. The mouse with a Napolean complex made a wish."

Mara stared at her. "What?"

"Nothing. Let's go meet Leia for lunch." As they approached the restaurant, two creatures came out, one pink, the other... teal?

"Oh, Flavio, that food was wonderful," the pink one said to her companion.

"Yes, Marita, it was simply devine," the teal one replied.

Mara turned and looked at Elsie. "Tell me you can explain that one."

"No, but if they think the food is good, then it must be," Elsie told her with a smirk. She looked into the restaurant, and shook her head as she saw that a manager and two waiters were staring at what used to be a table and some chairs, while Leia watched from the other side of the room. "Hmmm... maybe we should skip lunch..."

"Oh, no you don't. I'm hungry, and I like this place." Mara nudged Elsie in the shoulder and they went in.

Leia stood up when she saw them. "What took you so long?"

"Mara wasn't sure she wanted it, and then there was weirdness," Elsie calmly explained. "And now Dot is teaching Neesta about cute clothing."

Leia frowned as she helped Mara to sit down. "What?"

"You saw part of the weirdness, Madame Chief of State." Elsie motioned to the destroyed chairs and table.

"Oh... I'm not certain I understand, but..."

"In any event, the weirdness shouldn't last too much longer." Elsie sat down, and glanced toward the spectacle. "But if you see a giant chicken dressed in a business suit or something before this is over, I get to say I told you so."

Mara frowned as she stared at Elsie. "A what?"

"Or a mime, or... something like that..." Elsie motioned to the entrance.

Mara turned to see a gray-colored creature wearing a hat with a flower in it, holding a purse, and a little brown furry one that reminded her of Neesta in the way it moved. They stood in the entrance for a long minute, then walked away. "What makes you think that's connected to it?"

"Just trust me on that account..." Elsie picked up a menu and scanned it intently. "Hmm... everything looks good..."

~*~*~*~*~

Later on, they were leaving the restaurant, and Mara couldn't help but shake her head, amused about something. "I can't believe you were right about the giant bird."

Elsie laughed. "Funny thing is... I wasn't even expecting it to be a waiter. Poor Chicken Boo, getting fired like that, in the one place where he'd be most accepted."

Leia paused and looked hard at Elsie. "That bird has a name?"

"Doesn't everything?"

"Good point."

Elsie stopped when she noticed Mara's hand go to her back, and rubbing in a circular motion again. "Um... You've been doing that for a while."

Mara glanced at her, confused. "Doing what?"

"Massaging your back... Need I ask this, since I'm not going to read you without your permission, but... Any pain?"

Mara looked at Leia, saw the sudden concern, and shook her head. "No. I'm fine. I've just got a muscle spasm."

Elsie shared a knowing glance with Leia, then accepted that answer. "All right... then I'm going with you to that meeting later."

Mara blinked at her in confusion. "Why?"

"I'm a veterinarian, and better than nothing in a pinch."

"Really, Elsie. I'm fine, and I've gone to lots of intel meetings by myself. One more will make no difference." Mara winced at the wry expression that crossed Elsie's face. Luckily, she was saved by a young voice...

"Gee, Aunt Slappy... this isn't what the forest is supposed to look like. Did we take a wrong turn?"

"You're right, Skippy. There's more buildings in it than the last time I looked... oh well. We can camp out on a roof."

Mara turned to see those two same creatures walking past them again, and blinked. Hadn't they been walking the other way earlier?

"And have a camp fire?"

"Yes, Skippy."

"And sing songs?"

*sigh* "Yes, Skippy."

Mara turned and looked at Elsie. "Did those, whatever they are, just talk?"

"And what are they?" Leia wondered.

Elsie had to hide her smile. "They did indeed talk, yes... And those were squirrels... I think, anyway." She watched as the two creatures wandered away in search of a nice roof and shook her head. Then she glanced at Mara. "I'm still going with you to the meeting."

"You don't have the clearance for an NRI meeting, Elsie."

"I don't?" Here, Elsie frowned and pulled out her identification card and looked it over. "Then what does Security Clearance Gold mean?"

Mara stared at her, almost dumbfounded at that revelation. "How did you..."

"I managed to figure out who killed a senator and turned them in to the NRI. Have been on friendly terms with the head of the NRI ever since." Elsie shrugged. "Oh, and Leia?"

"Yes?"

"You're going to have to find new entertainment for birthday parties held for your kids." Elsie shook her head at Leia's expression. "Just thought I should tell you that, you know... those clown performers? The ones you had at Mon Mothma's birthday bash? They're out of business."

Now Leia stared at Elsie. "What?"

"Just thought you should know is all..." Elsie glanced around, hoping for a distraction as she put her identification card away. Luckily, she found one. "Oh, I just love mimes. Let's go watch."

Leia leaned closer to Mara. "What's a mime?"

Mara nodded toward where Elsie was headed. "I'm guessing we'll find out."

As they walked, the three of them passed Neesta, watching in facination as the three zany warners pulled a game wheel out of nowhere. Elsie paused and shook her head. "Why not?"

"Wheel of morality, turn turn turn, tell us the lesson that we should learn..." Yakko pulled the ticker tape from the slot, and read it. "And the moral of today is... Moral #5: Never moon anyone out of a high rise window."

"But that makes no sense!" Wakko complained.

Elsie turned to look at Mara, smirking. "It does if there are flying cars."

Mara tilted her head in question. "What's a car?"

"Speeder," Elsie clarified.

"Oh." Mara glanced at Leia, shrugging. "Well, it does make sense."

"Right... Are you sure you're all right? You are massaging your back a lot, Mara."

Mara rolled her eyes as they walked away from the group of Yakko, Wakko, Dot, and Neesta, who waved at them as they left. "For the last time, yes. It's just a spasm."

Leia didn't appear to be convinced.

~*~*~*~*~*~

At the academy, Luke was trying to lecture on meditation techniques, but kept getting distracted by sensations through the force. At times, it felt like pain, and, then there was an underlying sense of confusion. He knew it was coming from Mara, and that made him eager to just call a halt to all classes for the day. He couldn't do that, but he really, really wanted to.

Luke was so distracted that he didn't notice his sleeve catching on a nail on the lecturn, nor did he notice that it ripped when he raised his hand to gesture again.

His students, however, noticed and could barely contain their mirth.

~*~*~*~*~*~

Chris opened his apartment door to find his wife standing there with a glazed expression on her face, and Mara standing behind her. He looked from Mara, to Elsie, and back to Mara again. "What happened to her?"

"I'm not sure," Mara answered truthfully. "All these weird things kept happening, and then she started singing a song non-stop."

As if on cue, Elsie starting singing a campfire song. "Kum by ya, my Lord, kum by ya... Oh, Lord, kum by ya..."

Chris blinked, not having expected something like this on their day off, and pulled her into his arms. "Ah, that. I'll take it from here, Mara. Thank you... Come on in, Elsie. Everything is fine."

"Are there cartoons?" She asked him warily, an expression of near-panic in her eyes.

"No."

"Good," Elsie said, shuddering at the thought. Over Elsie's head, Chris nodded to Mara, who nodded back, and walked away, leaving them alone in the doorway. "Chris?"

"What?"

"Call Luke and tell him to cancel the rest of his classes for today."

"Why?"

"Why do you think?"

Chris took in the sudden non-glazed eyes and slowly nodded. "Noticed something, hmm?"

"Was there all the time."

"Better or worse than Jess wanting to patrol while eight and a half months pregnant?"

"Probably worse."

"Great... Are you all right?"

"Just keep me away from cartoon characters and I'll be fine."

Chris stared at her for a very long moment, then nodded slowly. "Right, I remember now. Bad incident during a training trip..."

Elsie shook herself, trying to get rid of the heebee jeebees, while Chris went to go comm the academy. "Yes..."

~*~*~*~*~*~

Mara was in the middle of the NRI meeting when she could no longer lay claim to having back spasms. Slowly, she stood up and bit her tongue to keep her composure. A hand on her elbow made her glance at the person, and she shook her head at General Madine. "It's nothing. I just need some air."

The general watched her go, frowning. That hadn't seemed like nothing...

Outside the meeting room, Mara leaned against the wall to hold herself up and stifled a groan. Of all the times and ways, this hadn't been what she'd expected to be doing... and Elsie had been right. Why hadn't she listened?

As Neesta appeared in front of her with a frown, she suddenly knew why. "Momma? I felt that."

"Get... Elsie."

Neesta nodded and vanished without another word.

Mara looked down and concentrated on the floor, counting the tiles in a somewhat failed effort to keep her mind off the pain. Then it faded and she could focus again. Of course she'd ignored the spasms all day. Why wouldn't she have? A familiar and welcome presence suddenly joined her in the hallway, and she smiled before she saw him. Turning to look down the corridor, she saw Luke rounding the corner and nearly running, and watched as he ran all the way to her. "Hi."

"Chris called me," Luke said as he gently pulled her into his arms and began to help her down the corridor. "Not that he really needed to. My concentration was shot, anyway."

Mara glanced at the arm around her shoulders and noticed a tear in his sleeve. Odd... "Guess I should have listened, huh?"

"I understand why you didn't."

Neesta popped in again, in front of them. "Momma? Elsie says that... Oh. Daddy's here."

"Yes, sweetie. He's here. Go tell her all's well."

"All right..."

Mara chuckled as Neesta faded out again. "Well, at least she can say she was involved."

"That's kind of... odd, only hearing half a conversation," Luke noted.

"You and Leia do that all the time." Mara winced as she felt another contraction come on. "Stop..."

Luke obliged her and stopped, waiting the contraction out. When he felt her posture ease, they continued walking down the corridor.

"Luke?" Mara asked when they got to the end of the corridor.

"Yes?"

"I still dislike jello."

Luke chuckled. "Can't blame you, there..."

~*~*~*~*~*~

Leia sat in the waiting room with Han, glancing at him occasionally and wondering why he seemed tense. "What's wrong?"

"The Ewoks were out to get me," Han said absently.

Leia stared at him. "What?"

"Just what I said... at least the twins had fun."

"Oh..." Leia glanced away and noticed that Elsie and Chris had come to join them. "Hello."

Elsie rolled her eyes. "Hi... Hopefully the invasion's over for now." Just then, she noticed a buxoum blond nurse walk through and frowned. "Or not..."

"Are you feeling better, Elsie?" Leia asked after a long moment of silence.

Han shook himself out of his daze and looked at Elsie, who was nodding her assent. "What happened?"

"Mouse made a..." She saw two mice walk by the waiting room and frowned in thought. "Wish."

"Pinky, this is not the way back to the lab... where is the lab?"

"In the jungle with the fruit, Brain," Pinky answered.

"Oh, for the love of Pete's Dragon," Elsie muttered as she stood up with a sigh. "I'll be right back."

As Elsie left the waiting room to follow Brain and Pinky, Han turned and looked at Chris in question. "What was that about?"

"Don't understand it yet, either," Chris told him. "Apparently, the shopping was odder than usual."

"It was," Leia agreed.

Elsie came back right then with Brain and Pinky in her hands and sat down next to Chris again. "All right, you two. Explain to me why you made a wish to an Elf on the night of the full moon. That's like asking cosmic law it's self for trouble."

Han stared at the mice in Elsie's hands. "Jacen wanted to take them home."

"You don't want to take these two home, General Solo. They'd be trying to overthrow the New Republic every night." Elsie let herself open up and studied Brain, who was staring up at her in silence, and then Elsie's eyes widened in realization. "Oh. Actually, that plan wasn't half bad..."

"It would have worked," Brain told her succinctly.

"If you say so," Elsie said as she handed Pinky to Chris. "Here."

Chris rolled his eyes. "Thanks... makes sense that you were somewhat more than weirded out now." He smiled down at Pinky, who looked up at him with somewhat vacant eyes, and then sat down in his hand.

Elsie nodded. "And Brain?" He continued to glare at her. "You're on Coruscant, not Earth... So trying to find the lab? Impossible."

Right about that moment, a sparkly light lit up the room, and a being with pointed ears, olden clothes, and mismatched socks poking out of his shoes, appeared in front up them with a wry expression. "Figures."

Elsie sighed and handed Brain off to the elf. "This is your fault, you know."

"Not really," the elf said as he collected Pinky from Chris as well. "Powers always go wild with moon phases... hope they weren't too much trouble."

"I am not an obstetrician!" a bald man in a lab coat and glasses said hysterically as he ran past the waiting room. "I am not an obstetrician!" There came a loud crash about ten seconds after he ran by, and a grunt. "I am not... an... Obstetrician!"

Elsie blinked in surprise, then looked at the elf with a smirk. "No, I wouldn't say they were... You might want to reverse the wish, lest Otto remain hysterical like that, though." She suddenly had to laugh at the implications... Mara was down that hall!

The elf stared out the doorway of the waiting room in puzzlement. "Has stuff like that been happening all day?"

"Yes."

The elf blinked and stared down at the mice in his hands, then looked at Leia, then at the mice again... "Oh, right. Force interaction. When it went wonky, the wish got messed up and the literal form of a take over was applied. Got it. Thank you, ma'am. I'll pick the rest up, too."

"Would a wish help?" Chris wondered thoughtfully.

The elf paused, then shook his head. "No. Thank you, but no."

The elf vanished, and Han blinked. "What or who was that?"

"A magic elf," Elsie told him. She frowned. "Jacen wanted to take them home? You were at the shopping center?" Han nodded, and Elsie smiled. "You didn't, perchance, get them anything to eat, did you? Maybe... a snow cone?"

Han blinked. "Yes. Jaina was thirsty."

"Ah." Inside, Elsie was smirking her head off. Jaina had dropped a snow cone on Pinky and the Brain!

~*~*~*~*~*~

Later, everyone was gathered in Mara's hospital room and admiring the baby. Mara looked up at Luke. "I think he looks like you. Has your eyes."

Luke smiled. "And your nose."

Mara rolled her eyes and smiled down at the baby boy in her arms.

Off to the side and out of view, Neesta looked up at her grandfather with a big grin. "I'm a big sister!"

Temaru smiled down at her. "Yes, little one. You are."

Hearing them, Elsie turned and saw the two of them standing there. She stared at Temaru for a long moment, almost in shock at seeing Neesta with anyone else, then nodded in greeting.

Temaru nodded back and held a finger to his lips.

Understanding, Elsie nodded with a smile. Some things were meant to be secret for a while longer.

"His name is Ben," Luke said, drawing her attention back into the circle of friends.

"Nice name," Han told him.

Chris nudged Elsie and looked at her in question. She smiled and shook her head. "All's well?"

"Yes, Chris. All's well."

"Good."

Leia turned to Elsie at that and frowned at her. "You never did explain how you knew what was going on, you know."

"Now is not the..."

"No," Mara interrupted her. "Now is the perfect time. What was with all the weirdness? You said something about cartoon characters, but..."

Elsie sighed and sat down in the uncomfortable plastic chair. "About 35 years ago, we went on a training trip and ended up in some hairy things. One of those was an alternate reality where those creatures that we kept seeing all afternoon actually do exist."

"An alternate reality?" Leia asked skeptically.

"I'm from another dimension, Madame Chief of State. Don't even try to tell me that alternate realities do not exist. Believe me when I say that they do. We had this one right in our own backyard, where five kids went missing suddenly, but really they'd been missing for months and no one noticed until their anchor, a person, was killed... as for the strange creature thing today? That was a walk in the park. I wish they were all like that, but..." Elsie shrugged. "If wishes were horses, beggars would ride."

Mara stared at her for a moment, then blinked and shrugged. "Right..."

Elsie glanced again toward their ghostly visitors and smiled at the approval in the man's eyes. At least someone was happy that she'd spoken her mind...

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

The elf was once again sitting and watching his campfire burn. Only now, he had visitors. Very strange visitors. "Could you just go? Please?"

"But we want to make a wish!" Yakko argued.

"No."

"Please?" Dot begged.

"No."

"Why not?" Wakko whined.

The elf just glared at them. Eventually, they'd go away, right?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Ewok Fun Land was courtesy of a friend. Many thanks to him. And, also: This chapter was a Ridiculously Specific Challenges Presentation... right down to Luke snagging his sleeve on a lecturn. Hee.


End file.
